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01-'i^I<JIAT^ IJONATION. 



41sT Congress, ) SENATE. J Ex. Doc. 

3d Stmion. \ \ No. 37. 



LETTER 



FROM THE 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 



COMMUXICATING, 



IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE 

OF THE 2D INSTANT. INFORMATION IN RELATION TO 

THE EARLY LABORS OF THE MISSIONARIES OF 

THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 

FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS IN OREGON, 

COMMENCING IN 1836. 

-yx."^- ■ Office aP X^ai^Yx -at^o 



^ WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1903. • • ' 



'a^i 



In the Senate of the United States, 

January 15, 190S. 
Ordered, That there be printed for the use of the Senate two thousand five hundred 
additional copies of Senate Executive Document Numbered Thirty-seven, Forty-first 
Congress, third session, the same being a letter from the Secretary of the Interior to 
Honorable Schuyler Colfax, President of the Senate, of date February eight, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-one, directing the Secretary of the Interior to furnish any 
information in the possession of hia De])artment pertaining to the " early labors of 
the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 
Oregon, commencing in eighteen hundred and thirty-six." 
Attest : 

Charles G. Bennett, Secretary, 
By H. M. EOSE, Chief Clerk. 



^^" 



' r 



41st Congress, ) . SENATE. 5 Ex. Doc. 

od Session ( '( No. 37. 



LETTER 

THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 

COMMUXICATIXG, 

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 2d instant, informa- 
tion in relation to the early labors of the missionaries of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Oregon, commencing 
in 1836.' 



February 9, 1871. — Referred to the Committee on Indian Aii'airs and ordered to be 

printed. 



Department of the Interior, 

Washington, D. G. February 8, 1871. 
Sir : la answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 2d instant, direct- 
ing' the Secretary of the Interior to furnish any information in the pos- 
session of his Department pertaining to the "early labors of the mission- 
aries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 
Oregon, commencing in 1836," I have the honor to transmit herewith a 
coj)y of the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated the 6th 
instant, together with the documents therein referred to, which contain 
all the information in possession of this Department in relation to the 
subject. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

C. DELANO, 

Secretary. 
Hon. Schuyler Colfax, 

President of the Senate. 



Department of the Interior, 

Office of Indian Affairs, 
Washington, D. C, February 6, 1871. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, by reference from 
your Dei)artment, of Senate resolution dated the 2d instant, calling- for 
information in regard to the early labors of missionaries of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Oregon, and respect- 
fully, in answer to your direction for a report in the matter, to say that 
the desired information will no doubt be found in the documents fur- 
nished by Dr. H. H. Spalding to A. B. Meacham, superintendent of 
Indian affairs, submitted by the latter to you on the 28th ultimo, and 
which were, with his letter, by your direction referred to this office on 
the 3d instant. 



2 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

I herewith transmit these papers as being all tliat are on file in this 
office relating" to the subject. 

A^ery respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. S. PAEKER, 

Commissioner. 
Hon. C. Delano, 

Secretary of the Interior. 



Washington, January 28, 1871. 

Sir: I am respectfully requested by the Rev. H. H. Spalding, the 
oldest living Protestant missionary in Oregon, to place on tile in your 
Department the accompanying documents giving a history of the early 
missionary work and labors of Dr. Marcus Whitman, himself, and others; 
the progress and civilization of the Indians under their charge, without 
aid from the Government; also a history of the massacre of Dr. Whit- 
man and others; also resolutions of Christian associations in answer 
to Executive Document No. 38, House of Rei)reseutatives, and a variety 
of historical information which it would seem proper to have on hie or 
placed in some more permanent form of future history, that our people 
upon the Pacilic as well as the Atlantic coast may be reminded of the 
self-sacrificing dispositions of these early missionaries, as well as their 
patriotic devotion to our country, which, in so great a measure, led to 
the acquisition of that vast territory upon the Pacific coast. All of 
which is respectfully submitted. 

A. B. MECHAM, 
/Superintendent Indian Affairs, Oregon. 

Hon. Columbus Delano, 

Secretary of the Interior. 



THE EARLY LABORS OF THE MISSIONARIES OF THE AMER- 
ICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MIS- 
SIONS IN OREGON, COMMENCING IN 183G, AND OTHER 
DOCUMENTS PERTAINING TO THE SAME. 



HISTORY OF MISSIONS ON THE NORTHWEST COAST. 

THE SUCCESS OF MISSIONS THE WEALTH OF THE NATION— OREGOX SAVED ISY THEM 
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES— THE MISSIONARY, THE PATRIOT'THE MAR- 
TYR — THE TWO AMERICAN HEROINES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY— THE AMER- 
ICAN WOMAN AND THE BRITISH LION— WHAT WOMAN HAS DONE TO DEVELOP A 
CONTINENT. 

In presenting this history to the people of the United States, we will glance — 
Ist. At the Oregon of 1834, the date that marks the lirst successful enterprise to 
secure to the people of the United States their vast Territories Avost of the Rocky 
Mountains— its dreary and worthless character, as regarded even hy our Government, 
by reason of its supposed desolate character, and its remoteness and inaccessibility 
liy land route. 

'2d. The helpless condition of the Territory at that date, in the handsof the Hudson's 
Bay Comi)auy, a powerful British monopoly, governed by a board of directors in Lon- 
don, witli a governor and 54 sworn officers in'the Territory, with 515 articled men and 
over 800 half-breeds and all the Indian tribes under their control, witli a line of well- 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON, 3 

established and strongly-fortified posts, under strict military rule, extending from the 
Pacific to the Atlantic, and a complete control of this coast for 2,000 miles. 

3d. The hostility of that company to the presence of American citizens in the country, 
and their policy to exclude American settlements, ;ind their efforts to secure the settle- 
ment of British subjects, although by the treaty renewed three times by said govern- 
ments the American citizen had the same right with the British subject. 

4th. The early Oregon missions, their importance in securing the country to Ameri- 
cans, by demonstrating the practicability of an emigrant route across the continent; 
by communicating to the people of the United States important information concern- 
ing the country; by establishing schools and laying the foundations of civilized 
society iu the valley of the Willamette, and doing nmeh to bring forward the pro- 
visional government; but especially by the herculean labors of the martyr Whitman 
through the winter snows of the Rocky Mountains, to reach the city of Washington 
and to communicate to the Government the certainty of a wagon route, and the value 
of the country, by which its cession to Great Britain was prevented; and by his suc- 
cessfully bringing through, in 1843, that emigration of nearly 1,000 souls, with their 
wagons, to the Columbia. 

5th. The Whitman massacre and the attempt to break up the American settlements. 

6th. Who excited the Indians to murder the Americans? 

7th. What do the citizens of Oregon and Washington think of Executive Document 
No. 38? 

8th. What is expected of Congress? 



I.— THE OREGON OF 1834. 

We had a right to Oregon, first by discovery of the Columbia River ; second, we had 
the right of possession by purchase of all the territory west of the Mississippi, claimed 
as Louisiana by France, and purchased by Jefferson in 1804. Had tliat failed we had 
the right of possession by purchase of Spain, in 1819, of all their possessions gained by 
discovery, or in any other way, north of 42^ north latitude, so that we had a three-fold 
right as stated by Webster. , But jiossession by right is very different from possession 
in fact. Gentlemen present are aware that that region, for a long time, was a terra 
incognita to most of the business world. The Hudson's Bay Company at length crowded 
out, not only the Northwest Company's posts, but j\!r. Aster's also, and changed 
the nameof Astoria to Fort George, thus gaining complete possession. — Address of Dr. 
Atkinson, of Portland, before the Xcw York Chamber of Commerce, December, 1868. 

At that time, however, the gloom of desolation hung like a i)all over these regions. 
Many of you can recall the dread in those times of the North Pacific Coast and its 
imagined dreary and dreamy loneliness. The unfortunate result of Astor's Columbia 
River project, the fate of the Tonquin, .1 ewett's narrative of the wreck and capture of 
the ship Boston and her crew, especially the terrible work of death by starvation and 
hardships among AVilsou G. Hunt's party, had stripped the northwest coast of 
America of a single inviting feature. But in a greater degree the immortal Bryant, 
in his 'Vision of Death,' dedicated these shores as its fit abiding place, and presents 
the grim monster as penetrating these 

" Ciintinuou.s Tvoods. 
Where rolls tlie Oregon, and hears no sound 
Save its own flashings.' 

He then breaks tbe awful silence of his own creation in the oracular assurance, 

" Tet the dead are there." 

The education of an American youth, in those days, was thought to have l)een neg- 
lected if he were unaVile to recite those memorable verses. Have you not felt the con- 
tagion of that inspiration ? Are you not, even now, sometimes affected by that ideality ? 
Transfer yourselves to your Atlantic homes, and imagine these ocean-washed shores, 
these immense mountain chains, our high northern latitude and proximity to the polar 
regions; regain once more your ideal conception of the remoteness of West from East, 
and then couple with these thoughts, 'Yet the dead are there.' Much as I love the 
poetry, greatly as I admire the venerable bard who has given such prestige to Ameri- 
can literature, yet how cruel was he to the home of my adoption. Methinks he stamped 
on the region tlje grim idea of its fitness for a charnel house. Will you risk life there, 
for it may be your lot, out of the presence and far removed from all you hold dear, there 
to fall alone, unwept and uumourued? Will you take moth<»r, wife, sister, child, to 
such a place? That sublime composition made me, when a schoolboy, imagine this 
northwest coast and the mighty Columbia the dreamiest and most inhospitable of 
earth. An idea, Avhether just or unjust, molds the history of passing events. That 
one surely passed into history, and impressed Oregon with a solitude so profound, 
it were almost sacrilege in men to attempt to disturb. So, at least, seemed to believe 
the American Government, and many leading American statesmen, for nearly half 
a century ; and although two American women set the example by which the presence 



4 EARLY LABORiS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

here of thousauds of men, \vomen, and children, shoiihl have dissipated tliis sjieil, 
yet still it cliiifis to the region like the fahled shirt of Nessns, and even now the 
great Northern Pacific Railroad incnrs its greatest hostility, because those who 
never visited these shores can not appreciate the vast importance, resources, and 
desirability of Northwest America. So with the weapon of groundless prejudice, soi 
d(sa«/ statesmen damnify the country, and call the shortest route across the American 
continent within the United States, clearest of obstacles and freest from obstruction 
by snows, a Siberian trail. These are the curiosities of our history, endowing it 
with a lively interest. — Hon. Edward Evans. 



II.— THE HELPLESS CONDITION OF THE TERRITORY, AT THAT DATE, IN 
THE HANDS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. 

Senator Benton, in 1825, when the joint occupaucy was before the Senate: 

'•'The claim of Great Britain was uotliiug but a naked pretension, founded on the 
double purpose of benefiting herself and of iujuriug the United States. That fur- 
trader, Sir Alexander McKenzie, is at the bottom of this policy. Failing in his attempt 
to explore the Columbia River in 1793, he nevertheless urged upon the British govern- 
ment the advantages of taking it to herself and of expelling the Americans from the 
whole region west of the Rocky Mountains. He recommended that the Hudson's Bay 
Company and the Northwest Company should be united, and they have been ; he pro- 
posed to extend the fur trade to the Pacific shores, and it has been so extended; he 
proposed that a chain of posts should be formed from sea to sea, and it has been done ; 
he recommended that no boundary line should be formed which did not give the 
Columbia River to the British, and the British ministry declare that none other shall 
be formed ; he proposed to obtain command of the fur trade from latitude 4.5- north, 
and they have it even to the Mandan villages and the Council Bluffs ; he recorameudecl 
the expulsion of the American fur-traders from the whole region west of the Rocky 
Mountains, and they are excluded from it." 

Sir James Douglass's testimony, given in answer to interrogatory H, in the case of 
The Hudson's Bay Company's Claim rs. United States: ■ 

" The honorable Hudson's Bay Company had fifty-five officers and five hundred and 
fifteen articled men. The company, having a large, active, and experienced force of 
servants in their employ, and holding establishments judiciously situated in the most 
favorable portions for trade, forming, as it were, a network of posts, aiding and sup- 
porting each other, possesseil an extraordinary influence with the natives, and in 1816 
practically enjoyed a monopoly in the fur trade in the country west of the Rocky 
Mountains north and south of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. The profits of 
their trade from 1811 to 1846 were at least seven thousand pounds sterling annually — 
about $35,000." 



III.— HOSTILITY OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY TO AMERICAN CITIZENS. 

Swan's work, 1852, page 381 : 

"The officers of the company also sympathized with their servants, and a deadly 
feeling of hatred has existed between thes(^ officers and the American emigrants, in 
coming across the mountains to squat upon lands they considered theirs; and there 
is not a man among them who would not be glad to have had every American emigrant 
driven out of the country." 

Fitz Gerald on the Hudson's Bay Company, before the British Parliament, in 1849: 

"A corporation who, under authority of a charter which is invalid in law, hold a 
monopoly in conunerce and exercise a despotism in government, and have so exercised 
that mono2)oly and so wicdded that po\ver as to shut up the earth from the kuowledge 
of man and man from the knowledge of God." 

Sir George Simjison, in his " History Around the World," fore part of 1847: 

" I defy the American Congress to establish their Atlantic tarifi'in the Pacific ports." 

General Brouilett's " Protestanism in Oregon," p. 51 of the edition published by 
order of the House of Representatives, says: 

"The massacre at Waiilatpu has not been committed by the Indians in hatred of 
heretics If Americans only have been killed, it is only because the war had been 
declared by the Indians against the Americans only, and not against foreigners; and 
it was in their quality as American citizens, and not as Protestants, that the Indians 
killed them." 

Senator Benton, before the Senate, May, 1848, urging Government to extend its 
arm of protection over Oregon Territory, in answer to the urgent call of the citizens 
after the Waiilatpu tragedy : 

"But which has had the effect of deiiriving those people of all government and of 



EARLY LABORS 01' MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 5 

bringing about tbe massacres which have taken T)lace, in which the benevolent mis- 
sionary has fallen in the midst of his labors." 



IV.— THE EARLY OREGON MISSIONS— THEIR IMPORTANCE IN SECURING 
THE COUNTRY TO THE AMERICANS. 

Immediately on the appearance of said Executive Document No. 38, of the Thirty- 
fifth Congress, though long after its jiublication, a committee was appointed at a pub- 
lic meeting in Linn County, Oregon, to investigato said document, with power to send 
for documents and to collect testimony ; they immediately addressed a circular of ques- 
tions to many old Oregonians, officers, civil and military, and to the surviving captives 
and sufferers of the Whitman massacre and the Indian wars that followed. A great 
amount of valuable testimony has thus been collected, completely refuting the charges 
made in said document under the strange heading, "Protestantism in Oregon," 
against the early pioneers of Oregon. 

We can give only extracts from the great mass of historic facts: 

Question. — Do you believe, from your long acquaintance with the Nez Perces and 
Cayuse Indians, that the Protestant missions established among them in 1836 were 
productive of good both in elevating the natives from the wretched condition of 
want and ignorance of letters, of cultivation, and of God, in which the missionaries 
found them, to a comparatively high state of civilization and Christaiu attainments; 
as also in securing the constant friendship and firm alliance of the Nez Perces nation 
to the Americans and the American Government? 

Answem. — I certainly do. I tirmly believe that the instructions the Nez Perces re- 
ceived from their missionaries kept them from joining in the wars against the Amer- 
icans. 

GEO. ABERNATHY, 
Ex-Governor of the lerritory of Oregon, 1845-'49. 

I answer most emphatically yes; and have so expressed myself in my history and 
on all occasions. 

.JOEL PALMER. 

[Palmer was commissary general in the Cayuse war, well acquainted with Whitman 
and Spalding and their labors; superintendent of Indian affairs for those tribes, 
and member of the Oregon legislature.] 

I arrived in this country in 1839, and from personal knowledge I answer yes. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

I arrived in this country in 1839, and from personal knowlegde I answer yes. 

WM. GEIGER. 

The condition of the savages (Cayuse) has been greatly ameliorated, and their 
improvement is attributable to the missionary residents (p. 57). Mr. and Mrs. Spalding 
have kept up a school and many of the Indians have made great proficiency. The 
, Nez Perces are a ([uiet and industrious people, and owe much of their superior qualifi- 
cations to the missionaries. In this lonely situation they (Mr. and Mrs. Spalding) 
have spent the best of their days for no other compensation than a scanty subsist- 
ence. — Palmer's History, pages 128, 131. 

This is evidently the most promising Indian mission in Oregon. I would here take 
occasion to observe that the Rev. H. H. Si>aldingand his heroic companion are laboring 
faithfully both for the spiritual and temporal good of this people (Nez Perces ), and in 
no part of the world have I seen more visible fruits of labor thus bestowed. Far away 
from all civilized society, and depending for their safety from the fury of excited 
savages alone in the protection of Heaven, they are entitled to the sympathy and 
prayers of the whole Christian church. — Uincs's History Around the World, page 172. 

Through the self-abnegating labors of this good old man (Spalding) these abo- 
riginees, we feel safe in saying, have been benefited more than by all the thousands 
of outlay by the Government. Their savage natures are changed in his presence, and 
from the chiefs to the humblest they obey and reverence him as do dutiful children 
a parent. — Golden Age, Lewiston, Idaho Territory, Novemher, 16, 1864. 

We concur in the above. 

JOEL PALMER. 
GEO. ABERNATHY. 

* [Extracts from Commodore AVilkos.] 

Vol. IV, page 460: "He (Spalding) baa not neglected to attend to the proper 
sphere of his duties, for his labors in this respect will compare with those of his 
brethren. * * His eftorts in agriculture are not less exemjilary. * * The In- 
dians, have a strong desire for cattle. A party was persuaded to accompany a mission- 



6 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

ary over the Rocky Mountains, and take horses to the States to exchange for cattle, 
but they were destroyed by the Sioux. " * Among the other duties of Mr. Spalding, 
he has taught them the art of cultivation, and many of them have plantations ; these 
are kept in good order. * ■ Mr. Spalding kindly loans them his plows and other im- 
plements, aiid on a difficulty arising among them he has only to threaten them with 
the loss of the plow to bring the refractory jiersons to reason. * * The women are 
represented as coming miles to learn to knit, spin, and weave, and to assist Mrs. Spald- 
ing in her large school and domestic avocations. ' * The great endeavor of Mr. 
Spalding is to induce the Indians to give up their roving mode of life, and to settle 
down, and cultivate the soil, and in this he is succeeding admirably. He shows admira- 
ble tact and skill, together with untiring industry and perseverance, in the prosecu- 
tion of his labors as a missionary; and he appears to be determined to leave nothing 
undone that one person alone can perform. " " In the winter the time of himself 
and that of his wife is devoted to teaching, at which season their school is much en- 
larged. " * Our gentlemen heard the ])upils read. In the winter the school at 
the station numbers about live hundred scholars, but in the summer not one-tenth 
of that number attend." — IVilkes's Exploring/ Expedition around fhe World duriny the 
years 1840, '41, '42, '43. Vol. 4, pages 460-465. 

I concur in the above statements. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 
I heartily concur in the above. 

JOEL PALMER. 
We concur in the above. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

WM. GEIGER. 

Center viLLE, Oregon, Decemher, 14, 1868. 

Dear Sir: I have seen and read with pleasure a memorial signed by Edward R. 
Geary and others, a committee appointed by the Oregon Presbytery of the Old 
School, and the United Presbyterian Churches, to devise measures for the renewal 
of the work of Christian missions among the nation of the Nez Perees Indians, 
and to reinstate the Rev. H. H. Spalding. * " I most heartily concur in the state- 
ments therein contained, and earnestly recommend that your excellency appoint Rev. 
H. H. Spalding superintendent of instruction. * - i have been acquainted with 
Mr. Spalding ever since 1845, and am personally knowing to most of the facts set forth 
in the memorial. I was in that country during the Cay use war in 1848. And then, 
again, in 1>;55 and 1856, I commanded the Oregon volunteers, when there was a con- 
cert of action among all the Indian tribes on our northwest coast, except the Nez Per 
ces alone, who, as a tribe, have always been friendly to the Americans. In the spring 
of 1856 they furnished horses to remount a portion of the volunteers under my com- 
mand, then in the valley of Walla-AYalla, for the purpose of waging war against the 
other tribes, all of whom were hostile to the Americans south and west of the 
Spokans, except the Nez Perees. 

In conclusion, permit me to say that I have no hesitancy in believing that the in- 
terests of the (Jovernment and that of the tribe would be better subserved by the 
appointment of Mr. Spalding than by any other man. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, vour obedient servant, 

T. R. CORN ATI US, 
Former Fresident of the Oregon Senate. 

To His Excellency Governor Ballard, 

Of the Territory of Idaho, ejc,-offieio Superintendent of Indian Affairs. 

We concur in the stmtiments above expressed. 

GEORGE ABERNATHY. 
JOEL PALMER. 
A. HINMAN. 

Brownsville, Xovembcr 4, 1868. 

Sir: The undersigned ministers and members of the Willamette Presbytery of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Churcli desire to represent that they have this day read a 
memorial addressed to your excellency, in behalf of the Rev. H. H. Spalding, indorsed 
by the Oregon Presbytery of the Old School Church, also by the Oregon Presbyteries 
of the United Presbyterian Church, and by the Pleasant Bute Baptist Church, and 
by many citizens of Linn County and vicinity, where said Spalding has been longest 
and best known. 

It affords us pleasure to express our hearty concurrence in the sentiments contained 
in said memorial, and further to assure you that it will be a source of dee]i gratifica- 
tion to the membership and ministers of the denomination which we represent to have 
the object named in the memorial effected as soon as practicable ; believing that in so 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 7 

doing only a moiety of justice would be done to a worthy and good man, and to one 
who has labored and suitered more for this Pacific coast than auy other living man. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servants, 

W. R. BISHOP, 
LUTHER WHITE, 

Committee of Presbytery. 
D. W. Ballard, 

Governor and ex-officio Superintendent of Indian J ff airs for Idaho Territory. 

Lewiston, February 22, 1865. 

Sir: I was United States Indian agent in charge of the Nez Perces Nation, Idaho 
Territory, when the Rev. H. H. Spalding, who had been appointed superintendent of 
instruction for Nez Perces Indians by Superintendent Hale, arrived at the Lapwai 
agency in the fall of 1862. At the time of his arrival a. great part of the tribe was 
collected at tlie agency, and I must say they seemed highly delighted at seeing Mr. 
Spalding again. They seemed much pleased at the idea of having a school started 
among them, and of having a minister who could preach to them in their own 
language. 

Every Sabliath the Indians in great numbers attended Mr. Spalding's preaching, and 
I was greatly astonished at the orderly and dignified deportment of the congregation. 
Although Mr. Spalding had l)een absent from the tribe many years, yet they retained 
all the forms of worship that he had taught them. Many of them have prayers night 
and morning in their lodges. The Nez Perces have always maintained friendly rela- 
tions with the Americans. This is, no doubt, in a great measure to be attributed to 
the influence and teachings of Mr. Spalding. In my opinion, Mr. Spalding, by his own 
personal labors, has accomplished more good in thistribethan all the money expended 
by Government has been able to effect. Not having any suitable school-house, I 
permitted Mr. Spalding to open his school in my office shortly after his arrival, and 
from that time till he was compelled to discontinue the school from severe sickness, 
the office was crowded not only with children, but with old men and women, some com- 
pelled to use glasses to assist their sight. Some of the old men would remain till bed- 
time engaged in transcribing into their language portions of Scripture translated by 
Mr. Spalding. The desire I have to correct any false impression that may have gone 
abroad with regard to the reception of Mr. Spalding by the tribe on his return to the 
Lapwai in the fall of 1862, is the only apology I will ofier for troubling you with 
this communication. 

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant. 



I concur. 
1 concur. 
S. H. Atkins, D. D. 

[From the Pacific, .Sau Francisco, California, Februfiry 6, 1864.] 



J. W. ANDERSON. 
G. ABERNATHY. 
JOEL PALMER. 



On Sunday last I had the pleasure of attending church at this place. The services 
were conducted in the Nez Perces language by the Rev. H. H. Spalding, who came to 
this people with his heroic wife in 1836. 

The governor of the Territory was present, and all the Federal officers and nearly all 
the county officers, with most of the citizens of Lewiston. The large court-room was 
crowded to its utmost capacity. The scene was deeply solemn and interesting; the 
breathless silence, the earnest, devout attention of that great Indian congregation 
(even the small child) to the words of their much-loved pastor; the spirit, the sweet 
melody of their singing, the readiness with which they turned to hymns and chapters, 
and read with Mr. Spalding the Sabbath lessons from their Testaments, which Mr. 
Spaldinghadtranslated and printed twenty years before; the earnest, pathetic voice of 
the native Christians whom Mr. Spalding called upon to pray — all, all, deeply and sol- 
emnly impressed that large congregation of white spectators even to tears. It wonld 
be better to-day, a thousand times over, if Government would do away with its policy 
that is so inefficiently carried out, and only lend its aid to a few such men as Mr. Spald- 
ing, whose whole heart is in the business, who has but one desire, and that to civilize and 
christianize these Indians. To-day shows what can be done when the heart is right. 

ALEX. SMITH, 
Judge First Judicial District, Territory of Idaho. 

I concur. 

GEORGE ABERNATHY. 

I heartily concur. 

.lOEL PALMER. 

I heartily concur. 

A. HINMAN. 



8 EARLY LA130KS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

From Hon. I). S. Thoinpsoii, 0/ Oregon Sviiaie. 

Washington, D. C, January 20, 1871. 

Dear Sir: I wa.s employed duriii;>- the past summer in surveying into twenty-acre 
lots apart of the Xez Perces reservation, Idaho Territory. I have lieen in the western 
portion of the United States, among the Indians, the greatest portion of my life, and 
I Ixdievf the Nez Perces Indians are by far the most intelligent and susceptible of civil- 
ization of any Indians of which lam acquainted. The worlv done l>y yourself for these 
Indians, years ago, you must feel yourself well paid for when you see what they now 
are, and what they were when you lirst went among them. Last year they raised not 
less than 50,000 bushels of wheat, 10,000 bushels of corn, 10,000 T)usliels of oats, besides 
large quantities of potatoes and other vegetables. I am rejoiced to hear that you are 
going back to tliat people ; you are better acquainted with them than any other man, 
and 1 know they regard you their best friend. 
Yours, &c., 

D. S. THOMPSON. 

Rev. H. H. Spaldixg. 

[From tlie Chicago Advance, Decemljer 1, 1870.] 
AN EVENING WITH AN OLD MISSIONARY. 

One day last week a man of humble appearance, about seventy years of age, called 
at our office, and was introduced by a stronger as the Rev. H. H. Spalding, of Oregon. 
We had heard something of his labors as a missionary among the Indians in that region, 
and were glad to take the veteran by the hand. He was on the way to his old home at 
the East, after an absence of thii-ty-four years, and intended to stay over but a single 
train in Chicago. The few words we could then have together led us to press him to 
share our hospitalities for the night, which he accejited. 

^ "Dr. Wliitinau's wife and mine," said the missionary, as we drew up our chairs about 
the study table and opened our "Colton" tt) the riglit maj), "were the tirst white 
women that ever c.-rossed the Rocky Mountains. That saved Oregon to the L'nion. It 
was God's plan to give the wealth of the Pacific slope to the United States through 
the agency of missionaries." We asked for an explanation. " The Northwestern terri- 
tory was then occujtied by the Hudson's Bay Company. Who should linally i)os8ess it — 
England or the United States — depended upon who could first settle it with an immi- 
gration. The Hudson's liay Company desired to secure it for their half-breeds and the 
Jesuits. They were slowly creeping down from Selkiriv settlement, here on the north," 
pointing it out on the map, "and silently taking possession, with forts and trading 
posts. Neither wagons nor women, they industiiously said, can ever pass the terrible 
rock-barriers that wall out Oregon from the United States. Trap]>ers, traders, travel- 
ers, everybody' echoed tbe words: 'No white woman can cross the mountains and 
live.' Seven different com[tanies of male emigrants from the East had l)cen shrewdly 
harried out of the country by their machinations. Hut they couldn't do it with us," 
said he, rising excitedly. " When the missionaries, with tlieir wives and a wagon, ap- 
peared on the 'divide,' one of them said : ' Here is somebody that you can't get rid of 
80 easy. These folks have come to stay.'"' 

" But how came you to go ? " we asked. And then for four hours of the rarest interest 
we listened to the wond(?rful story. It would take a volume to unfold it. We must 
press it into the briefest possil)le space. 

The Maccdi>niaii Xe: Peres. — About their counci] fire, in solemn conclave —it was in 
the year 1832 — the Flatbeads and Nez Perces had determined to send four of their 
uumlier to " the Rising Sun " for "that Book frimi Heaven." They had got word of 
the Bible and a Saviour in some way from the Iroquois. These four dusky wise men, 
one of them a chid', who had thus dimly "seen His star in the east,'" made their way 
to St. Louis. And it is significant of the perils of this thousand miles' journey that 
only one of them survived to return. They fell into the hands of General Clark, who, 
with Lewis, had traveled extensively iu the regions of the Columbia River. He was a 
Romanist, and took them to his church, and, to entertain them, to the theater. How 
utterly he failed to meet their w;ints is revealed in tlie sad words with which they 
departed: "I cauie to you " — and the survivor repeated the words years afterward to 
Mr. Spalding — "with one eye partly oiiened; I go back with both eyes closed and 
both arms broken. My prople sent me to obtain that Book from Heaven. You took 
me where your women dance as we do not allow ours to dance; and the Book was not 
there. You took me where I sawmen worship God with candles; and the Book wasnot 
there. I am not to return without it, aiKl my people will die in darkness.'' And so 
they took their leave. But this sad lament was overheard. A young man wrote it to 
his friends in Pittsburg. Tliey showed the account to Catlin, of Indian portrait fame, 
whohadjustcome from the Ivocky Mountains. Kesaid: "Itcannot be: those Indians 
were in our company, and I heard nothing of this. Wait till I write to Clark before 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. \) 

you publish it." He wrote. The response was : " It is true. That was the sole object 
of their visit- to get the Bible." Then Catliu said, "Give itto the world " The ^Meth- 
odists at once commissioned Rev. Mr. Lee to go and tind this tribe, who had so strangely 
broken out of their darkness toward the light. Dr. Marcus Whitman, of the American 
Board, who was too late for the overland caravan for that summer, followed the next 
year. Lee found the Nez Perces ; but so fearful were the ridges and the ravines of the 
path to them, and so wild the country where ihey roamed, that the gift of ten horses, 
with which they pleaded their cause, could not keep him. He pushed on to the tribes 
living near the coast, and sent for his wife and associates by the way of Cape Horn. 

Woma-'s hcruism.—lt was with great joj- theNez Perces welcomed Whitman thenext 
year. Having explore<l the situation, and taking with hiui two boys, which the 
Indians had placed in his hands as hostages, in some sort, for his return, he went back 
for his intended wife, and to secure others for the work. But who would go? Men 
could be found ; but where was the woman willing to brave the vague horrors of that 
"howling wilderness?" His betrothed consented. But an associate, and he a married 
man, must be obtained. More than a score of most devoted ones were applied to in 
vain. Friends said, "It is madness to make the attempt." And we do not wonder; 
for tliat country, and the way between, in the popular impression, was a dark unknown, 
full of terrors. 

The dead are tliere where rolls the Oregon, 

wrote Bryant. The dead were there, and the bones of not a few luckless emigrants 
strewed the path to the mountains. 

A year was spent in the search for associates, and then light came from an unex- 
pected quarter. In the early spring of 18.36 a sleigh, extemporized from a wagon, was 
crunching through the deep snows of western New York. It contained Rev. Mr. and 
Mrs. Spalding, who were on their way, under commission of the American Board, to 
the Osage Indians The wife had started from a bed of lingering illness, and was then 
able to walk less than a (juarter of a mile. 

Dr. Whitman, having heard of the rare courage of this woman, by permission of the 
board, started in pursuit. 

"We want you for Oregtm," was the hail with which he overtook them. 

"How long will the journey take?" 

"The summers of two years." * 

"What convoy shall we have?" 

"The American Fur Company to the 'divide.'" 

"What shall we have to live on?" 

"Buflalo meat, till wo can raise our own grain." 

"How shall we journey?" 

"On horseback." 

"How cross the rivers?" 

" Swim them." 

After this brief dialogue — and Ave give it precisely in his own words— Mr. Spalding 
turned to his wife and said : 

"My dear, my mind is made up. It is not your duty to go; but we will leave it to 
you after we have prayed." 

By this tiiiu^ they had reached a tavern in the town of Howard, New York. Taking 
a private room, they each prayed in turn, and then left Mrs. Spalding to herself. In 
about ten minutes she appeared with a beaming face, and said. " I have made up 
my mind to go." 

" But your health, my dear." 

"i like the eoinmaud jii.^t as it stands. ' Go ye into all the world,' and no exceptions 
for j)oor health." 

"But the perils, in your weak condition — you don't begin to think how great they 
are." 

"The dangers of the Avay and the weakness of my body are His; duty is mine." 

" But the Indians will take you prisoner. They are frantic for such captives. You 
will never see your friends again " — and tlie strong man broke down and began to cry. 

Was it the wife that answered, or was it a voice from the old time ? 

"What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready, not to be bound 
only, but also to die at Jerusalem, or in the Rocky Mountains, for the name of the 
Lord .Jesus." 

"Then," said the veteran, with a charuiing simplicity, "I had to come to it. I 
didn't know anything." 

"Weil, you were crazy," we interposed, "to think of such a journey and she so 
weak." 

"We were, l)Ht God meant to have us go. He wanted to have an emigration go 
across the mountains, and this was the way he took to start it." 

Mr. and Mrs. Spalding continued their journey, and Whitman, sending forward to 
his bride to be ready, went back for his Indian boys — they were then about sixteen 



10 EARLY LA150RS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

years old — iiiid pressed on after them. There was a hasty wedding by the way, and 
then the bridal tour began. 

But the st)ite of itartiug was not yet over. At Pittsbnrg, Cincinnati, St. Louis — all 
along the way — hands were stretched ont to hold tlieni back. Catlin, at Pittsburg, 
assured them they could not take women through. 'I'he hostile Indians that hover 
about tlie convo,v would tight against any odds to capture them. One woman had 
tried it. but the company was massacred, and she was dragged away and never heard 
of again, ^[rs. S])aldiug was especially beset with these tales of horror. " Jiut," 
said the liusbaud, witli an honest pride, "it didn't move her a hair." 

A Sit7>(l<(ii on shore. — An incident, bv the way, should be noted here. The party took 
boat at I'ittsburg. Saturday night found them between Cairo and St. Louis. Mrs. 
Spalding, who seems to have had a good share both of courage and the conscience of 
the com2)any, insisted tliat they should be put on shore to spend Sunday. The captain 
and the passengers lauglied at lier scruples. But 8he said, •' Out on the plains we shall 
he at the mercy of the I'ur Company, and must go on; here we can stop." 

"But no boat will e^'er call at such an ont-of-the-way place as this to take you off." 

''We'll take the chances of that. Put us on shore." 

The New England Iiome missionary marked that day in white which brouglit such a 
rare accession to liis little meeting in the schoolhouse. He said it was like an angePs 
visit. Early ]\[ouday morning a great putting was lieard below, and a grand ste;imer, 
better than the one they had left, rounded to at their signal and took them on l)oard. 
Sixty miles abo\e they overtook the other )>(>at hojtelessly stranded on a sand-bar. 

At St. Louis the missionaries found tlio American Fur Company titting out their an- 
nual expedition i'or the mountains. But as the two wives were along, they could not 
have secured a ]ilace in the caravan had not Whitman been in special favor by his serv- 
ices rendered the year before. It seems that, on his previous trip, a few days out 
from Council Bluffs, the cholera had broken out, and the demoralized men, dropping 
their packs, began to flee in a perfect rout. But Dr. Whitman, who, added to his great 
streugtli, had skill and tact, was equal to the emergency. Throwing off bis coat, he 
sweated the patients over the boiling camp kettles, administered ]>owerful i-emedies, 
and so stayed the pestilence and restoreil order. The men were now as grateful as 
thej'^ had been betbre cool and contemptuous ; and when an arrow's head had been ex- 
tracted from behind the festering spine of a comrade, and his life saved, their adnura- 
tion knew no bounds. 

Flaving secured the compnny's pledge, they pressed on by boat to Liberty Landing, 
Here Spalding purchased mules, (wild he found them, ) hiteen or twenty horses, as many 
cows, and two wagons, not forgetting a quart of seed wheat. With this retinue he 
started for Council Bluffs, while Whitujan waited, with the women and the goods, 
for the company's boat. After some days that boat passed, purposely leaving them 
behind. Through this bad faith, he was obliged to send forward to Spalding for horses, 
and to overtalve him as he could by land. I'his part of the trip was peculiarly trying. 
Spalding especially, who, for his wife's sake, was not yet altogether happy in going, 
seemed to be the sport of a very ill fortune. But in the review even he could see a 
comic side to his mishaps. A mule kiclced him. He was terribly shaken l)y the ague. 
In crossing a ferry an unruly cow, whi<'h he had laid hold of, Jumped overl)oard, taking 
hira along for ballast. A tornado scattered his cattle, swept away his tent, tore his 
blankets Irom him while the ague turn was on, and left liim to be drenched by the 
rain, with the usual consequences to one who takes calomel for his medicine. 

It did not help the case any to learn, when they were within twenty-tive miles of 
Council Bluffs, that the Fur Company's convoy had starte<l, and were already five 
and a half days out on the plains. 

'"Twas a poor clismce," said tlie narrator, " for us greenhorns. They were old trap- 
pers with fresh horses, while our teams were already .jaded. And I said — I was ter- 
ribly sick, you know — ' we can't overtake them ; we shall have to go b.aek.' But my 
wife constantly aftirmed, 'I have started for the Rocky Mountains, and I expect to 
go there I ' ' 

And now commenced a series of marked interpositions. It was pure faith and no 
sight at all to push on after that cavalcade. I'he trappers evidently designed to keep 
ahead, and so induce the missionaries to tarn back. Biit to secure the protection of 
the convoy was indispensable, and (lod took care of His own. 

"It was a desperate race, ' said the missicmary, kindling at the remembrance, " but 
we won it. They had to halt and till up ravines and make roads, preparing the way 
of the Lord, you see. This detained them four days. .Inst where He stopped them 
the year before with the cholera. He stayed them again; not, as at the Red Sea, by 
taking off the wheels, but by setting the axles on fire. In their haste to get away 
from us they had forgotten to take sufficient wheel-grease. To burn wood for ashes, 
going ten miles out of their way to find it, and to kill two oxen for the fat necessary 
for this compound, took four days more. And then, at Loup Fork, still four other days 
were lost in finding the ford and drying their goods, wet in crossing. Meanwhile we 
were pressing on behind, and the Lord helped us. The day before we reached Loup 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON, 11 

Fork we rode from dayliglit^it was late in May — till two o'clock at uiglit. One horse 
broke down and was turned loose, and my wife fainted by the way. A signal gun at the 
ford brought answer from the other side, and we camped. The convoy started early 
in the morning, but left a man to sJiovr us across, and late that night we missionaries 
tiled into their camx», and took llie place reserved for us, t\\o messes ivest of the cap- 
tain's tent, and so we won the race by two lengths! " 

Once among them, nothing could exceed the kindness of the men. " The clioicest 
buffalo morsels were always kejtt for our Indies. But sick or well, we had to go on. 
We were two hundred souls and six hundred animals. Everything was in the strictest 
military order, ior hostile Indians continually hovered on our llanks. At night we 
camped, with the animals solid in the center. The tents and wagons were disposed 
around them ; and outside of all sentinels marched their steady round. Each day two 
hunters and two packers went out for buffalo. Each night, save when Ave had lost 
the way, they overtook us at the appointed camp with four mule-loads of meat. This 
was our only subsistence.'" 

" Did they never fail to find game?" 

'• Yes, once or twice, and then we had to go hungry.'' 

On the 6th of June we were at Fort Laramie. Wife was growing weaker and 
weaker. 

" You must stay here,' said the captain ; " Mrs. Spalding will die for want of bread." 

"No," said she, " I started to go over the mountains in the name of my Savior, and 
I must go on." 

Indepeudence Doi/ at the ' iJivde." — July 4th, they entered the South Pass. Mrs. 
Spalding fainted that morning, and thought she was about to die. As they laid her 
upon the ground, she said : " Don't ])ut me on that horse again. Leave me and save 
yourselves. Tell mother I am glad I came." 

But the caravan stopped on the " Divide," and sent back for her, and she was borne 
on. She soon revived, and three hours afterward they saw the waters trickling toward 
the Pacitic. And there — it was Independence Day, six years before Fremont, follow- 
ing in the footsteps of these women, gained the name of the '■ Path-finder," — they, 
alighting from their horses and kneeling on the other half of the continent, with the 
Bible in one hand and the American tbig in the other, took possession of it as the 
home of American mothers, and of the Church of Christ. 

Just beyond was the great mountain rendezvous, the end of the convoy's route, a 
kind of neutral ground, where multitudes of Indians were gathered for trade. There 
were rough mountaineers there who had not seen a white wtmian since they had left 
the homes of their childhood. Some of them came to meet the missionaries, and wept 
as they took their wives by the hand. " From that day," said one of them, " I was 
a better man." But best of all, here met them a greeting i)arty of the Nez Perces. 
They were the happiest men you ever saw. Their women took possession of Mrs. 
Spalding, and the gladness they showed, not less than the biscuit-root and the trout 
with which they fed her, revived her spirit. From that hour she began to mend; 
and from that hour her future and theirs were one. 

Ten days of rest here, and the journey was resumed. The remainder of the way, if 
shorter, was no less perilous, and they had asked in dismay, "What shall we do for a 
convoy?" But God took care of them. He sent an English trading company to the 
rendezvous that year — an unusual thing — and with them they completed the trip. 

It was the 29tli of November when they reached the Columbia River. They had 
left civilization the 21st of May, a long journey, but not the trip of two summers to 
which they had made u]) their minds. 

And now they were at home amid a nation that had no homes; they had found a 
resting place among restless wanderers. But faith had become sight; the first bat- 
tle had been fought and won. White women had come safely over the mountains; 
cattle and horses had been kept secure from Indian raiders ; a wagon had been brought 
through, '{tlw Jirst tvluel that had evir i^reissed the sage." j Whitman had demonstrated 
to himself that an emigration could cross from Missouri to Oregon: and when, six 
, years afterward, he led a company of a thousand along the same track, he demon- 
strated it to the world and saved Oregon, and with it Caliiornia, to the United States. 

The irve hidiaii policy. — The old missionary's story is not half told, but we must cut 
it short. Whitman took the Cayuscs at Waiilatpn (Wy-ee-lat-poo. ) near Walla Walla; 
Spalding camped 120 miles farther up the Snake River, among the Nez Perces. He 
found a people without a hoe, or plow, or hoof of cattle; savages, who feasted when 
the hunt was good, but starved through the long winters. Eleven years afterward 
they were settled in homes; their crops of grain had reached from 20,000 to 30,000 
bushels a year. The cows which the missionaries brought had multiplied for the In- 
dians into numerous herds; gardens and orchards were planted ; the sheep which the 
English residents denied them, but which the Sandwich Islanders gave, had grown 
to flocks. In the school which Mrs. Spalding taught, carrying a young child in her 
arms, were 500 pupils. A church of a hundred members had been gathered. The 
tongue of the people, hitherto without a character, had been reduced to writing. A 
patriarchal government, with a code of laws, had been established ; the Sabbath was 



12 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

observed. Upon the first printing press west ofthe moiintiiins, and Ihat presented to 
the mission by the native oburch at Honolnln — the ty])esetting, ])ress worlc, and bind- 
ing done by the missionary's own hand — were printed a few school-books, the native 
code of laws, a small collection of hymns, and the Gospfl of Matthew. 

St. Bartlioli mtw'ii Day in Oregon. — And then came that tornado of rapine and mnrder 
at Waiilatpu, evoked, there is abnndant evidence to believe, by the .Jesnit Fathers. 
Whitman, with fourteen others, was massacred. The killing lasted through eight 
days, and, in the midst of it, the Catholic jjriests baptized Indian children whose 
hands weie stained with the victim's blooil. 

A young woman, already outraged in the presence of her dying brother, who had 
gone to the Father's house for safety, was thrust ont each night for twenty days to the 
hated embrace of an Indian chief. He called it making her his wife, but she plead that 
she might be killed. Spalding, visiting Whitman at the time, tied for his life to his 
faithful Nez Forces. Six days he was without food, feeling his way, sore-footed, by 
night, and hiding Avhen the dawn appeared. There was a hasty gathering of the 
household, a journey of two hundred miles to the settlements, in mid-winter, and the 
mission came to an end. Almost blind himself, and broken in constitution, he watched 
for many months ))y the bedside of his wife, dying from that exposure ; watched till 
she p,assed through the river to the Celestial Mountains and the laud beyond. 

Upon the records of Congress, printed through what intrigue and connivance let him 
tell who can, stands a paper known as "Ex. F>oc. No. 38, o.5th Congress, 1st session." 
It claims to be — it ifi astatement full of perjuries and perversions — "A History of Prot- 
estantism in Oregon, by the Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet, vicar-general of Walla Walla." 
Further on it calls itself an "Account of the murder of Dr. Whiluiau, and the ungrate- 
ful calumnies of H. H. Spalding, Protestant nussionary." The Nez Pcrces mission- 
grounds, abandoned (so say the ofS( ials) by the American board, are in litigation to- 
day for recovery, and the .lesuits are thrusting themselves upon that very tribe re- 
deemed from heathenism through the labors of this same Protestant missionary. Who 
shall now say we have a State without a church:' O, ye priests and politicians, for 
this wrong unj)aralleled, you shall yet stand condemned at the bar of an outraged pub- 
lic sentiment; and, after that, at the bar of God! "How long, Lord, how long!" 

From Elijah White, Esq., United States Indian agent, 1843. 

April 1, 1843. 
* * * Left the following day for the station of Mr. Spalding, 

among the Nez Perces, 120 miles over a most verdant and delightful gi-azing district, 
well watered but badly timl)ered. * # :* r^^^ chiefs met us with civility, 
gravity, and dignilied reserve, but the missionaries with joyful countenances and glad 
hearts' * " * Spent a season in the school, hearing them read, sing, and spell; 
at the same time examined their printing (with the pen) and writing, and can hardly 
avoid here saying I was happily surprised and greatly interested at seeing such num- 
bers so far advanced and so eagerly pursuing after knowledge. The next day (Decem- 
ber 4, 1842) I visited their plantations, rude, to lie sure, but successfully carried on, so 
far asraising the necessaries of life were concerned; and it was most gratifying to wit- 
ness their fondness andcare for their little herds, pigs, poultry, Arc. * * # 
I was ushered into the presence of the assembled chiefs to the number of t\yenty-two, 
andalarge number of the common people. * * "" The gravity, fixed atten- 
tion, and decorum of these sons of the forest was calculated to make for them a most 
favorable impression. * " I gave them to understand how highly Mr. and 
Mrs. Spalding were prized by the numerous whites, and with what pleasure the gi'eat 
chief had given them a paper to encourage them to come here to teach them what they 
were now so diligently employed in obtaining, in order that they and their children 
might become good, wise, and happy. * # * Mr. McKinley, of Fort Walla 
Walla, spoke concisely of his long residence among them as their trader, and forcibly 
of their (to him) unexpected advancement in the arts and sciences. 

Next arose Mr. McKay : " I appear as one from the long sleep of death. You know of 
the death of my father on board the ship Tonguin ; I was but a youth. I have mingled 
with you in bloody wars and profound peace ; I have stood in your midst surrounded 
with plenty, audsutfored with you in seasons of scarcity. We have had our days of 
wild sport and nights of watching, till 1 vanished from among men. left the Hudson's 
Bay Company, and retired to my plantation ; was silent as one dead ; the voice of my 
brother aroused me ; I mounted horse ; am here ; I am glad it is so. I came at the call of 
the great chief, whose children are more numerous than the stars in the heavens or the 
leaves in the forest. Will you hear and be advised? You will. Your wonderful im- 
provements in the arts and sciences prove you are no fools; surely you will hear." 

Chiefs speak; Five Crows, (Pahet-ko-ko,) about 4o, neatly attired in English cos- 
tume, wealthy, and owns some 2,000 horses, stepped gravely but modestly to the table: 
" I am but a youth, but my feelings urge me to speak. I have listened to what has 
been said. I have great hopes that brighter days are before us; have been groping 
for something, hardly knew what, as in darkness; here it is." 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 13 

The bloody chief (Noo-son-ki-oon,) not less than 90 years : " I speak to-day ; to-mor- 
row pei-haps I die. I am the oldest chief of the tribe ; was the great chief wheu your 
brothers Lewis and Clark visited this country ; they honored me with their friendship 
and counsel. I showed them my numerous wounds received in bloody battle with the 
Snakes ; they told me it was not good ; it was better to be at peace ; gave me a Hag of 
peace; I held it up high; we met, we talked, but never fought again. Clark pointed to 
this day ; we have long waited ; sent three of our sons to the rising sun to obtain the 
Book from Heaven ; two of them sleep with their fathers. I am glad to live to see this 
day; shall soon be still and quiet in death." 

Other chiefs spoke. . 

Ellis was appointed high chief: a sensible man of 32, reading, speaking, and writing 
the English language tolerably well ; has a tine small plantation, few sheep, some neat 
cattle, and no less than 1,100 head of horses. Then came the feast; our ox was fat, 
and cooked and served up in a manner remiudiug me of the days of yore. We ate beef, 
corn, and peas to our till, and in good cheer took the pipe; when Rev. Mr. Spalding, 
Messrs. McKinley, Rogers, and McKay wished fiom our boatmen a song; it was no 
sooner given than returned by the Indians, and repeated again and again in high cheer. 
I thought it a good time, and requested all having any claim or grievance against Mr. 
Spalding to meet me and the high chief at evening in the council room, and requested 
Mr. Spalding to do the same. We met at six and ended at eleven, having accom- 
plisLied much business in the happiest manner. 

The next day we had our last meeting. I made them, in the name of our great chief, 
a present of 50 hoes, ( heavy, ) to be distributed by Mr. Spalding among their industrious 
pool'. I then turned, and, with good effect, desired all the chiefs to look upon the con- 
gregation as their own children, and then pointed to Mr. Spalding and lady, and told the 
chiefs and all present to look upon them as their father and mother, and to treat them in 
all respects as snch. Thus closed this mutually hapi^y and interesting meeting, and 
mounting our horses for home, Mr. and ^Nlrs. Spalding'and the chiefs accompanied ns 
four or tive miles, when we took leave of them in the pleasantest manner, not a single 
circumstance having occurred to mar our peace, or shake each other's conridence. 

After a severe journey of four days, reached Waiilatpu, Dr. Whitman's station, 
where we had many most unpleasant matters to settle. Feather Cap commenced 
weeping. Tauwat-wai said the whites were mnch more to blame than the Indians; 
that three-fourths of them, though they taught the purest doctrines, practiced the 
greatest abominations, referring to the base conduct of many in the Rocky Mountains ; 
acknowledged it as his opinion that the mill was burnt purposely by some disafiected 
persons toward Dr. Whitman. The mill, lumber, and great quantity of grain was 
burnt by Catholic Indians, instigated by Romanists, to breakup the Protestant mis- 
sion, and prevent supplies to the on-coming emigration by Dr. Whitman. " ' And 
here allow me to say, except at Wascopum, the missionaries of the upper country are 
too few in number, * * and in too defenseless state for their own safety. * * 
Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, whose zeal and untiring indu.stry for the benetit of the 
people of their charge entitles them to our best consideration, have a school of some 
two hundred and twenty-four, in constant attendance, most successfully carried 
forward, which promises to be of great usefulness to both sexes and all ages. 

ELIJAH WHITE, 
Sub-Agent of Indian Affairs West of the Rocky Mountains^ 

T. Hartley Crawford, Esq., 

Commissioner Indian Affairs, Washinf/ton, I). C. 

Department of War, Office of Indian Affairs, 

November 25, 1844. 
Communications have been received from Dr. Elijah White, sub-Indian agent for 
the Indians in Oregon Territory. * * They contain much of interest in considerable 
detail. The establishment of white settlements from the United States in that remote 
region seems to be attended with the circumstances that have always arisen out of 
the conversion of an American wilderness into a cultivated and improved region, 
modified by the great advance of the present time in morals, and benevolent and 
religious institutions. It is very remarkable that there should be so soon several 
well-supported, well-attended, and well-conducted schools in Oregon. The Nez 
Perces tribe of Indians have adopted a few simple and plain laws as their code, which 
will teach them self-restraint, and is the beginning of government on their part. 
Respectfully submitted. 

T. HARTLEY CRAWFORD. 
Hon. William Wilkins, 

Secretary of War. 

From Elwood Evans. 

Again, the Hudson's Bay Company professed neutrality. See Governor Ogden's 
speech to the Indians when he went to redeem the captives. See, too, what he says 



14 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

■when be tells the ludiaiis that they thought such acts would ])iove acceptable to the 
compauy. The logic of the lattei- proves the outbreak to have been liable to follow 
the too-literal appreciation of the education of the Indian mind as to their hatred of 
the Jlostou ; and neutrality in such a case is but sympathy with the wrong-doer. 
And history, therefore, niusl accept the inexorable logic that though Dr. Whitman had 
committed no such acts as seemed in the eyes of the company to justify such retalia- 
tion, yet some events it was a character of service which might have been expected 
from their alliance with the compjiuy. 

Again, the company's servants could travel in the hostile country in perfect safety. 
Any Catholic coukl. enjoy similar immunity — a j'vlori the Indians Avere hostile, not to 
whites, but to American Protestants. 

Again, there is no doubt but that either the Hudson's Bay Company or the Catholic 
missionaries could have prevented any outbreak of hostility on the part of Indians. 
They failed to exercise such iuHuence. They omitted to do a Christian, humane duty. 
Such an omission is as criminal, niorally, as direct commission of acts inciting to 
hostility. 

History, therefore, to do justice, will condemn the criminal teaching of a creature, 
hardly accouutable, to hate a class. It will palliate the Indian who could not discrimi- 
nate between " no intercourse" and open hostility. It will blaine those who, provoking 
a storm, were not gifted with the power to control the elements, even had they the 
desire to do so. Nor will it excuse them because by a proffer of sympathy to stay the 
sacrifice of life they endeavored to relieve the captives. That Governor Ogden could 
relieve those captives, that the Roman clergy could stay in the midst of the hostile 
Indians, proves too much. The same inlluence, had it been jjroperly exerted, would 
have avoided the massacre. But we must go deeper for the cause of the massacre. 
Thehistory of the agency of Protestant missions in encouraging American settlement; 
the advent of settlers; the uniform first visit to the Whitman station; the treaty of 
1846, which decided that the days of the occupancy by the company of the Territory 
were numbered, and that they had been baftied in getting Columbia River for the line, 
explain the causes of chagrin of the company. The policy of the company, pursued 
everywhere, of making the Indian subservient in time of peace, auxiliary in event of 
war, finishes the matter. There is no necessity to charge that the Indians who killed 
the inmates of Waiilatpu, on the specified occasion, were directly incited to that act. 
There was no time, from 1836 down to November, 1847, when such advice was neces- 
sary. — Elwood Evans's Histoin/, chaj). 19. 

How naturally the query arises, "Why is the Catholic exempt from danger; why 
can the Hudson's l^ay Company employe remain amid these scenes of blood and Indian 
vengeance against the white race, cat peace, undisturbed, and what is more loathsome, 
neutral in such a conflict; why can the priest adminster the rites of his church to 
those Indians who are making war against Christians — even flocking to him — when 
you and other missionaries are fleeing for your lives because you are a missionary and 
an American f" Think you the conviction will not follow that the uncivilized Indian 
was, at best, supposing that these bloody deeds w^ere acceptable service to those whom 
he continued to regard as patrons and friends^ Let your narrative really illustrate 
that "inasmuch as they did these things unto me" because I was an American and a 
Protestant, that any and all Americans at that time WQuld have suffered like conse- 
quences, then will flow the corollary — distilled truth, the logic of history — Catholics 
and Britons Avere exempt. The American missionaries were the apostles ]>aving the 
way for American occupancy — the avant couriers of Oregon-Americanization. The 
Hudson's Bay Company — wi th its auxiliaries, the Catholic missionaries — were making 
their last grand struggle for the sole and unlimited control of the Indian mind. They 
expected they were carrying out the wishes of their teachers. See Ogden's speech to 
the Indians, where he boldly and o])enly owns that " the Indians believed they would 
receive the approbation of the company." — Honorable Elwood Ecans's Letter toliev. H. 
H. Spanldinij, OU/mpin, June 30, 1868. 

That record (history) is the best monument to the faithful who died at their posts — 
words of tribute or panegyric from any pen sink into insignificance when compared 
to American blood crying aloud from unmade graces at Waiilatpu. " Remember this, 
we suffered because we were Americans !" That mound called Whitman's grave, 
speaks louder "the deep damnation of his taking off " than could most elociuent 
txibnte inscribed upon the granite shaft, lifting its towering head to heaven itself; 
for it calls to mind that none were spared of American blood to do the last sad rites 
to these martyrs. 

Nor need you fear that the missionary heroines, who proved that Avoman could go to 
Oregon, and live and die there, Avill ever be forgotten. When this generation shall 
have passed away, Avhen envious neighbors, A'ieing Avith each other Avho did most to 
bring American institutions to the shores of the Pacific, shall lie motionless in death, 
and thousands now unborn shall travel by rail OA^er that then untraveled route, that 
little missionary caraA'an will come back to memory, to last as long as the eternal 
mountains. That transit, now stripped of all terrors, difficulty and danger will be re- 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 15 

cognized as the direct consequence of that Leroic journey, showing what woman could 
do. Nor will it be forgotten that Oregon was then deemed worthless because of its 
remoteness and supposed inaccessibility. Those women dispelled both these false 
theories ; demonstrated that Oregon could be peopled from the United States ; showed 
its continuity to the Pacific shore, joint occupancy or non-occupancy, call it what you 
please, was superseded by American xnle occupancy. ( )regon was saved by reason of 
those women, engaged in a soul-saving mission, west of the Rocky Mountains. — Hon. 
Elwood Eraihs'n Letter to I>ev. H. H. Spaldiuti, Olynipiu, W. T., June 30, 1868. 

Report of the United States Indian Agent for 1843. 

AViLLAMETTE Valley, OREGON, November 15, 1843. 

Honored Sir: Since my arrival I have had the honor of addressing you some 
three or four communications, the last conveyed by the Hudson's Hay Company's 
express over the Rocky Mountains ^■ia Canada. The day following we left those 
Walla-Wallas and Cayuses, to pay a visit to the Nez Perces. In two days we were 
at Mr. Spalding's station. The Nez Perces came together in greater numbers than on 
any former occasion for years, and all the circumstances combining to favor it, received 
us most cordially. Their improvemet during the winter, in reading, singing, writ- 
ing, weaving, &c., was considerable, and the enlargement of their plantations, with 
the increased variety and quantities of the various kinds of grains and products, now 
vigorously shooting forth, connected with the better state of cultivation, and their 
universally good fences, were certainly most encouraging. 

Spending three days with this interesting tribe and their missionaries in thepleas- 
antest manner, they accepted mj' invitation to visit with me the Cayuses and VValla- 
"VVallas, and assist, by their influence, to bring them into the same regulations. 

Mr. Spalding and Ellis, the high chief, and every other chief and brave of impor- 
tance, and some five hundred of the men and women accompanied us to Waiilatpu, a 
distance of one hundred and thirty miles, where we met the Cayuses and Walla-Wallas 
in a mass, and spent some six days in adjusting principles, so as to receive the Cayuses 
into civil compact, which done, and a chief elected, much to the satisfaction of both 
whites and Indians, I ordered two fat oxen killed, and wheat, salt, &c., to be dis- 
tributed. 

The last year's report, in which was incorporated Mr. Lewis's Oregon speech and 
Captain Spalding's statements of hundreds of unoffending Indians being shot down 
annually by men under his (Dr. McLaughlin's) control, alHicts the gentlemen of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and is utterly without foundation. 
Respectfullv, yours, 

ELI.TAH WHITE, 
Sub-agent of Indian Jffahs West of tlie Hocky Mounta ns. 

Hon. J. M. Porter, 

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. 

Depart.ment of War, Office of Indian Affairs, 

Wasliington, D. C, November 24, 184.5. 

Two interesting and very instructive reports have been received from the sub-agent 
west of the Rocky Mountains. They present that country in a new and important 
light to the consideration of the public. The advancement in civilization by the 
numerous tribes in that remote and hitherto neglected portion of our territory, with 
so few advantages, is a matter of suri)rise. Indeed, the red men of that region would 
almost seem to be of a different order from those with whom we have been in more 
familiar intercourse. A few years since the face of a white man was almost unknown 
to them. Now, through the benevolent policy of the various Christian churches and 
the indefatigable exertions of the missionaries in their employ, they have ])rescribed 
and well adapted rules for their government, which are observed and respected to a 
degree worthy the most intelligent whites. 

Numerous schools have grown up in their midst, at which their children are acquir- 
ing the most important and useful information. They have already advanced (esjje- 
cially the Nez Perces Nation) to a degree of civilization that prcmiises the most bene- 
ficial results to them and their brethren on this side of the mountains, with whom 
they may, and no doubt will, at no distant day be brought into intercourse. They 
are turning their attention to agricultural pursuits, and, with but few of the neces- 
sary utensils in their possession, already produce sufiScient, in some instances, to meet 
their every want. 

Among some of the tribes hunting has been almost entirely abandoned, many indi- 
viduals looking wholly to the soil for support. The lauds are represented as extremely 
fertile and the climate healthy, agreeable, and uniform. 

Under these circumstances, so promising in their consequences and so grateful to 
the feelings of the philanthropist, it would seem to be the duty of the Government of 

S. Ex. Doc. 37 2 



16 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

the United States to encourage their advancement and still further aid their progress 
in the path of civilization. 

Respectfully submitted, 

W, MEDILL. 
Hon. Wm. L. Makcy, 

Secretary of War. 

Testimony of General Alcord, of the United States Army. 

He (Colonel Steptoe) often descanted on the manly traits and Christian persever- 
ance and fortitude of Timothy, (a Nez Perces chief,) and many of the Nez Perces. 
Accounts concur as to the remarkable preservation by the Nez Perces of the habits 
derived from the missionaries a dozen years ago. Such docility deserves encourage- 
ment. Their devotion to our people, our arms, and our Government, has also endeared 
them to all who have been watching the histoi'y of their position. — General Alvord's 
letter to G. U. Atkinson, D. D., of Portland, dated Fort Fancuurer, December 2S, 1858. 

I concur cordially in the above. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

I concur in the sentiments of General Alvord. 

JOEL PALMER. 

Question. Can you concur in the sentiments contained in the printed memorial 
herewith sent? Please sign and return. 
I heartily concur. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 
I concur with all my heart. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

WM. GEIGER. 

A. HINMAN. 

J. N. GILBERT. 
AVe cheerfully concur. 

GUSTAVUS HINES. 

W. C. HATCH. 

O. DICKINSON. 

A. Z. WALLAR. 

JOEL PALMER. 

Albany, Oregon, October 22, 1868. 

To his excellency Governor Ballard, of the Territory of Idaho, cx-officio superintendent of 

Indian Affairs: 

The undersigned, a committee appointed by the presbytery of (Oregon, (Old School,) 
to devise measures for tlie renewal of the work of Christian missions among thenation 
of the Nez Peices Indians, and to promote the reinstatement of our respected minis- 
terial brother, the Rev. H. H. Spalding, in that tield of his early and successful 
labors, would respectfully and earnestly request your excellency to ap])oint Mr. 
Spalding superintendent of instruction, under the treaty of 1856, aud would respect- 
fully submit the following considerations therefor: 

1st. Our long personal ac([uaintance with Mr. Spalding aud knowledge of his early 
successful labors in that tield impel us to regard him as eminently qualified for the 
position. 

2d. His familiar ac(|naintance with the native language, reduced by him to a writ- 
ten state, several scliool books being prepared and portions of Scripture translated 
by liim, and printed on the first press on this coast, the only instance of the Icind, it 
is belived, among the Indian tribes on these Pacihc shores. These books are held at 
this time above all price by the Nez Perces. 

3d. His great, perhaps unparalleled success as a missionary in Christianizing and 
introducing the usages of civilization among that people during the eleven years spent 
among them, and until driven away in the year 18 17, as attested by the superior intel- 
ligence, enterprise, and good order still characterizing and distinguisliing them from 
the surrounding tribes. To this httndreds of our citizens, civil and military officers, 
miners, travelers, and oth(;rs of most reliable character, bear a uniform testimony. 
Among these we would name Commodore Wilkes, an eye-witness in 1841, Rev. Gus- 
tavns Hines, in 1843, General Joel Palmer, in 1846, Colonel Steptoe, Agent Ander- 
son, and Governor Daniels. The country, on the arrival of Mr. Spalding, in 1836, was 
emphatically a wilderness; uncultivated; not a hoe, plow, or hoof of cattle; the sav- 
ages starving on their meagre supply of roots and tishes ; ignorant of letters, of 
agriculture, of the Sabbath, and of human salvation. 

4th. That this scene should so soon be changed, the "desert to bud and blossom," 
the fields to wave with grain, 15,000 to 20,000 bushels of grain harvested yearly by the 
Indians, orchards and gardens planted, cattle roving in bands, schools established, in 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 17 

wliich from 100 to 500 souls were in daily attendance, women spinning, over 100 profes- 
sors adorning the Christian faith, a church organized and family altars erected, speak 
volumes for the fidelity and efficiency of Mr. Spalding and his estimable wife. 

5th. The strong alliance and unwavering friendship of the Nez Pcrces to the Ameri- 
cans, while all the surrounding tribes have been at times hostile and repeatedly in 
arms against the United States, their friendship being fairly and clearly attributable 
to the instruction and inlluence of Mr. Spalding, render him worthy of the most 
favorable consideration of the Government. 

6th. The personal hazards, sacriiices, and perils of Mr. Spalding and wife, and Dr. 
Whitman and wife (the first white women to hazard the Kocky Mountains and the 
route across the continent), in opening the great emigrant route in 1836, thus securing 
the settling of this coast by Americans, their constant aid and friendship to the 
wayworn emigrant, their watchful and untiring labors in defeating the intrigues of 
English diplomacy, and securing this vast Pa(-ific West to our country, should secure 
to them a gratitude and esteem not to be forgotten. 

7th. The oft-expressed and strong desire of the Xez Perces for Mr. Spalding's return, 
and his constant and full reciprocation of that desire to live among them and devote 
his life to their spiritual good and social elevation, is all a consideration not to be 
lightly regarded. 

8th. No other man lives capable of translating the Scriptures into their language, 
and of preaching to them the Gospel so intelligently as Mr. Spalding. 

9th. The honor of the United States is involved in the faithful execution of the 
treaty of 1856 for the ))urcha8e of that country, which could not have been suiccssfully 
negotiated without the liberal provisions for schools and teachers which it contains; 
the disregard of wliich hitherto subjects our Government to the charge of bad faith 
and a failure to appreciate the fidelity of a people whose integrity and frienciship 
have often saved our frontiers from the blood and desolation of 8av;ige war, and the 
National Treasury the expense of millions of dollars in njilitary expenditures. 

Agent Anderson, for several years in charge of the Nez Perces, does not, in our judg- 
ment, exaggenite in saying that the "friendly relations always maintained by the Nez 
Perces with the Americaus is in a great measure to be attributed to the influence and 
teachings of Mr. Spalding," and that, in his "opinion, Mr. S., by his own personal 
labors, has accomplished more good to this tribe than all the money expended Ijy the 
Government has been able to effect." All of which is respectfully submitte<l. 
With high personal esteem we are, sir, your obedient servants, 

EDWARD R. GEARY, 
Fornur Saperinleiulcut of Unit Tcrrilovy. 
WM. J. MONTEITH. 
D. h. RICE, 

Committee of Prrshi/teri/. 
To his excellency Governor Ballard, of the Terr it or i/ of Idaho: 

The following is respectfully submitted: 

We, a committee appointed in May, 1868, by the Oregon Presbytery of the United 
Presbyterian Church, to investigate the case of the Rev. H. H. Spalding, in his rela- 
tions as missionary to the Nez Perces tribe of Indians, did report to the above-named 
presbytery, which report was unanimously accepted by that body, and the substance 
of which is embodied in the above memorial, as prepared by a committee representing 
the presbytery of the Old School Church in Oregon, and addressed to his excellency, 
Ballard, governor of Idaho. 

We, therefore, heartily concur in and subscribe to the above memorial, earnestly 
requesting his excellencj' to act on it as soon as i^racticable. 

T. S. KENDALL, 
.JOHN McCOY. 
Comiuittee of Fresbytiri/ of V. P. Church . 

We. ministers, elders, and members of the above-named O. S. and U. P. Churches 
of Oregon, and acquaintances of Rev. II. H. Spalding, from personal knowledge or 
testimony, concur in the statements made in the above memorial. 

[Here follows a list of live or six hundred names, numbering among them some of 
the very best men in the State.] 

We, citizens of Oregon, and old acquaintances of Rev. H. H. Spalding, heartily con- 
cur in the statements contained in the above memorial. 

JOHN CONNOR, Merchant. 
L. F. GROVER, Ex-Co)iqres»man. 
^ EDWARD FREELAND, rostmaster. 

GRANVILL BABAR, Jnd(ie. 
S. A. .JOHNS, Judqc. 
R. H. DUNCAN. 
A. HOLT. 
S. E. HOLT. 

And perhaps a thousand others. 



18 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

Tc/itinionji from IVdshiiH/ton Territori/ to loyalty of Xe: Perces Jndiaiin, and to J]'liitrnan 

and Spahliny. 

Skatti.e, Washington Territohy, March 24, 1869. 
James Blakelky, and others, committee to examine execntivc doeument 3(S: 

(Jkxti.emkn: In reply to your circular of 4th instant, wo would say that we cheer- 
i'lilly concur in the sentiments set i'orth in the printed memorial accomi)anying it; 
and further, from reliable information, ajid in p;irt from cur own knowledge, we 
accord witli the statements ccmtained in the letter of .J. W, Anderson, esq., former 
Indian agent in charge of the Nez Perces nation, as to the iutiuence of the Rev. H. H. 
Spalding over said tribe. 

We also answer that it is our l)elief that it was by the labors and self-denials of 
theProtestantmissiouarics, and their heroic wives, at an early day in Oregon — through 
the information given by them, botli to the people and tlu^ (Government of the United 
States — that this whole region was secured. We further believe it to be true that it 
was through their etforts that the country was thrown open to and settled by the 
people of the United States; and that in an especial degree are we indebted to the 
lamented Whitman, whose ])resence at the city of Washington, in March, 1843, very 
opportunely prevented the consummation of a transfer of Oregon to England. 

GEO. F. WHIT WORTH, 
Chief Clerk Indian Department, includincj 2<e: Perces Xatiov, 
and Minister licnnited Presbi/tcrian Church. 
D. BAGLEV, 
Presiding Elder Protestant Methodist Chnrch. 

.]. D. DRIVER, 
M. E. ('Iiurch, Jf/ent American P.ihle Society. 
G. H. GREER. 
C. H. HALE, 
Former Snpirintendent Indian Affairs, ivcludinq Xe: Perces Xation. 

C. T. HLINTINGTON, 
Chief Clerk Indian Department, Jr. T. 

From Governor Erons, Chief Justice Henet, <fc. 

OlyiMPIa, March 26, 1869. 
We, the undersigned citizens of Washington Territory, have read the foregoing me- 
morial praying the appointment of tlie Rev. H. H. Spalding as superintendent of in- 
struction for the Ne/. I'erces tribe of Indians, and cordially concur in said prayer, as 
also in the reasons for said action as set forth in said memorial. 

S. D. HOWE, 
Assessor Internal Pevenne and former Commissioner Xez Perces treaty, 1863. 

S. GARFIELDE, 
Surveyor-General W. T., I>ele(iate to Congress. 
A. G. COOK, 

Attorney at law. 
T. W. REED, 
Former Speaker of Legislative Assembly, II . T. and I. T. 

C. C. HEWET, 
Chief Justice Washinqton Territory. 
B. T. YANTIS. 

T. F. Mcelroy. 

H. K. HINES, 
Presiding Elder Methodist Episcopal Chnrch. 
ELWOOD EVANS, 
Late Secretary TV. T., including Xez Perces Xation. 
E. S. SMITH, 
Secretary Washington Territory. 

The Methodist Episcop.-il Church, the liaptist, the Christian, the Congregational, 
the Presbyterian Church, the United Presbyterian Church, and reunited churches, in 
their ecclesiastical bodies, have concurred in said memorial. 

What two missionary women have done for the country — Hon. Elwood Evans— Success of 
missions the wealth of the nation. 

Alter the discovery of America by Columbus, it was not long before the Atlantic 
Ocean had ceased to be regarded as a great barrier to an advent to the Atlantic shores 
of the American continent. Indeed, long before the first settlement of New England 
the continent itself was the obstacle to westward progress, then already the path to 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 19 

empire. To cross this immensity of land, or to avoid it being crossed, really had be- 
come the problem before the pilgrim fathers thought of settlement in America,. The 
latter theory ^yas regarded the one which needed solntion. None were bold enough to 
attempt crossing the continent itself, yet this was the task the ( tregon emigrant had to 
accomplish or to make the voyage around Cape Horn. The history of the Oregon con- 
troversy develops the fjict that it long continued to be doubted whether it were possi- 
ble to people Oregon overland from the United States, or whetlier that Territtiry must 
receive its populaticm by sea, via Cape Horn. If the former failed, then Great i->ritaiu, 
with her over-glutted centers of population, could use Oregon as an escape-valve, and 
all the probabilities seemed to indicate that British colonization would ultimately 
settle the Oregon controversy by maturing occupancy and possession. 

But a third of a century ago two heroic, self-sacriticing Ameiican women found the 
solution of this problem of doubt and uncertainty. Actuated by as holy an impulse 
as inspired the Puritan fathers to spread the blessings of the Christian religion in new 
lands, they undertook the pilgrimage to Oregon to convt*i"t the Indians. What ser- 
mon could be more eloquent than that silent readiness to undertake such a journey? 
No heroism more sulilime than their willingness to go. How sanctitied has been that 
])reaching! How shortly after the fruit ai3peared, in opening to Amerieauization the 
vast region west of the Rocky Mountains preparing it for the homes of men, women, 
and children. If women could reach Oregon overland the settlement of territorial 
claim was attained. That interesting incident of the past was the sure harbinger of 
what we are now about realizing. The great engineering and ntilitarian idea of the 
19tli century is about to be consummated. The continent is crossed by a railroad. 
After American women had traversed the broad plains and crossed the great mountain 
chains of the American continent, it was needless further to search for a ''Strait of 
Anian.'" That Journey, accomplished safely, preceded the emigrant wagon road. As 
a natural conseijuence the railway has been substituted, the commerce of the Pacitic 
and the eastern .seas is concentrated in American cities on the Pacific shores, and the 
United States of America is the leading power of the world. 

The example of the sainted heroines — one of whom (Mi's. Dr. Marcus Whitman) was 
slain at her post of duty by the perfidious savage for whose benefit she had gone into 
exile from home, kindred, and all its endearments, and the other (Mrs. Rev. H. H. 
Spalding) lies under the clod in an Oregon valley — was soon followed by a hardy band 
of men, women, and children. In each of these was a living argument of the integrity 
of claim of their nation to this territory. They were alike devoted to the glorious 
task of dedicating the wilderness to become a home for God's creatures, and reclaim- 
ing for their conntry a vast expanse of valuable territory, well-nigh lost by the 
"masterly inactivity" and apathy of the Government. — Hon. Elwood Erans's (late 
secretary Washington Territor;/) address at Port Townsend, JV. T., -.'annary, 1869. 



THE MARTYR WHITMAN'S SERVICES TO THE EMIGRANT ROUTE. 

HIS TERRIFIC WIXTEK .JOUKNEV THROUGH THE ROCKY :\IOUNTAIXS — HIS SUCCESSFUL 

MISSION AT WASHINGTON. 

However the political question between England and the United States as to the 
ownership of Oregon may be decided, Oregon. will never be cohmized overland from 
the United States. The world must assume a new face before the American wagons 
will make plain the road to the Columbia as they have to the Ohio. — Edinburgh I!e- 
vietv, 1843. 

SENATOR LANE OF OREGON ON THE MISSIONARY WHITMAN. 

Among those who thus labored faithfully and unremittingly !ind with a singleness 
of purpose and self-sacrificing zeal which commanded the admiration and respect 
of all who observed his elevated and untiring labors, was the Rev. Marcus Whitman. 
Never, in my opinion, did missionary go forth to the. field of his labors animated by a 
nobler purpose, or devote himself to his task with more earnestness and sincerity than 
this meek and Christian man. He arrived in 183ti, and established his mission in the 
Waiilatpu country, east of the Cascade Mountains, and devoted his entire time to the 
education and improvement of the Indians, teaching them the arts of civilization, the 
mode of cultivating the soil, to plant, to sow, to reap, to do all the duties that pertain 
to civilized man. He erected mills, plowed their ground, sowed their crops, and 
assisted in gathering in their harvest. 

About the time he had sueceeded in teaching them some of these arts and the means 
of using some of these advantages, they rose against him without cause and without 
notice, and massacred him and his wife and many others who were at the mission at 
the time. — General I.ane in the House of Representatires, April, 1856. 



20 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

THE MAltTYU WHITMAN'S WINTER JOUKNEY TO WASHINGTON — LIVES ON UNCOOKKD 
FROZEN MULE MEAT — HIS SERVICES TO THE EMIGRANT ROUTE. 

This vastly important emijiraut route, thus established by tlic persoual sacrifices 
and hazards. of those two devoted missionaries, was saved to our country, as it was 
about to l>e extiuguislied by tlie false representations and wiles of the Hudson's Bay 
Comijany, l)y the personal hazards and hardships of that devoted missionary, Ur. 
Whitman, in the California mountains, in the winter of ISl'J and 1843. 

Those two missionary heroines, with Dr. Whitman, Dr. (iray, and myself, crossed 
the mountains in 1886, bringing the lirst cattle and wagons. In 1838 four lady mis- 
sionaries — Mrs. Smith, Eells, and Walker, from New England, and Mrs. Gray, from 
New York — and their husbands, and Mr. Rogers, from Cincinnati, crossed, bringing 
cattle, ))ut no wagons. Two lady missionaries crossed in 1839 — Mrs. Grifiin and Mrs. 
Miuger, from New York, and their husbands. In 18-10 three missionary ladies from 
New York, Mrs. Smith, Cl*rk, and Littlejohn, and their husbands, and the first emi- 
grant lady, Mrs. Walker, and her husband, crossed the mountains and brought their 
wagons; but on reaching Fort Hall they were compelled to abandon their wagons by 
the representations of the Hudson's Bay Company, who declared that wagons never 
bad passed and could not pass through the Snake country and the Blue Mountains 
to the Columbia. This Airs. Walker and her husband went from Oregon to California 
in 1841 — the first American lady in California. 

In 1841 no missionaries crossed, but several emigrant families, bringing wagons, 
which, on reaching Fort Hall, suffered the same fate with those of 1840. In 1842 con- 
siderable emigration moved forward with ox teams and wagons, but on reaching Fort 
Hall the same story was told them and the teams were sacrificed, and the emigrant 
families reached Dr. Whitman's station late in the fall, in very destitute circum- 
stances. About this time, as events proved, that shrewd English diplomatist. Gov- 
ernor Simpson, long a. resident on the Nortiiwest coast, reached \Vashiugton, after 
having arranged that an English colony of some 150 souls should leave the Selkirk 
Settlement on the Red River of the lakes in the spring of 1842, and cross the Rocky 
Mountains by the Saskatchawan Pass. 

DR. WIHTAIAN'S WINTER .TOURNEY, 1843. 

The peculiar event that aroused Dr. Wliitmau and sent him through the mountains 
of New Mexico, during that terrible winter of 1843, to ^Vashington, just in time to 
save this now so valuable country from being traded oft' by Webster to the shrewd 
Englishman for a "cod fishery'' down east, was as follows: In October of 1842 our 
mission was called together, on business, a.t Waiilat])u — Dr. Whitman's station — and 
while in session. Dr. W. was called to Fort Walla-Walla to visit a sick man. While 
there the "brigade'' for New Caledonia, fifteen bateaux, arrived at that point on ' 
their way n]» the Columbia, with Indian goods for the New Caledonia or Frazer River : 
country. Thej' were accompanied by some twenty chief factors, traders, and clerks I 
of the Hudson's Bay Com]>any, and Bishop Demois, who had crossed the mountains > 
from Canada, in 1839 — the first Catholic priest on this coast; Bishop Blanchett came ,-^ 
at the same time. 

While this great company were at dinner, an express arrived from Fort Colville, 
announcing the (to them) glad news that the colony from Red River had passed the 
Rocky Mountains and were near Colville. An exclamation of joy burst from the whole 
table, at first unaccountable to Doctor Whitman, till a young priest, perhaps not so 
discreet as the older, and not thinking that there was an American at the table, sprang 
to his feet, and swinging his hand, exclaimed: "Hurrah for ('olumbial (Oregon.) 
America is too late; we have got the country." In an instant, as by instinct. Dr. 
Wliitman saw through the whole plan, clear to Washington, Fort Hall, and all. He 
immediately arose from the taltle and asked to be excused, sprang upon his horse, and 
in a very short time stood with his noble " Cayuse," white with foam, before his door; 
and without stopping to dismount, he replied to our anxious inipiiries with great 
decision and earnestness : " I am going to cross the Rocky Mountains and reach Wash- 
ington this winter, God carrying me through, and bring out an emigration over the 
mountains next season, or this country is lost." The events soon developed that if 
that whole-souled American missionary was not the "son of a prophet,'' he guessed 
right when he said a " deep-hiid scheme was about culminating which would deprive 
the United States of this Oregon, and it must Ite broken at once, orthe country islost." 
We united our remonstrances with those of sister Whitman, who was in deep agony at 
the idea of lier husband perishing in the snows of the Rocky Mountains. We told him 
it would be a miracle if he escaped death either from starving, or freezing, or the 
savages, or the perishing of his horses, during the five months that would be recjuired 
to make the only possible circuitous route, via Fort Hall, Toas, Santa Fe, and Bent 
Fort. His reply was tbat of my angel wife six years before: "I am ready not to be 
bound only, but to die at Jerusalem or in the snows of the Rocky Mountains for the 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 21 

uanie of the Lord Jesus or my country. I am a missionary, it is true, but my country 
needs me now." And taking leave of his missionary associates, his comfortable home, 
and his weeping companion, with but little hope of seeing them again in this world, 
he entered upon his fearful journey the 2d of October, 1842, and reached the city 
of Washington the 2d of March, 1843, with his face, nose, ears, hanrls, feet, and legs 
badly frozen. It is well that the good man did not live to see himself and his faith- 
ful associates robbed and their character slandered by that very Government he was 
ready to lay down his life for. It would have been to him, as it is to me, the most 
mournful event of my life. 

Nothing but the continued outstretched hand of God, and his clothing of butfalo 
hides, with the fur inside, and his unyielding spirit, saved him from perishing from 
the intense cold. 

On that terrible 13th of January, 1843, when so many in all parts of our country 
froze to death, the doctor, against the advice of his Mexican guide, left his camp in a 
deep gorge of the mountains of Now Mexico, in the morning, to pursue his journey. 
But on reaching the divide, the cold became so intense, and the animals actually 
becoming maddened by the driving snows, the doctor saw his peril, and attempted to 
retrace his steps, and, if possible, to tind his camp, as the only hope of saving their 
lives. But the drifting snow had totally obliterated every trace, and tiie air becom- 
ing almost as dark as night bj the maddening storm, the doctor saw that it would be 
impossible for any human being to find camp, and commending himself and distant 
wife to his covenant-keeping God, he gave himself, his faithful guide, and animals up 
to their snowy grave, which was fast closing about them, when the guide, observing 
the ears of one of the mules intently bent forward, sprang upon him, giving him the 
reins, exclaiming: ''This mule will find the camp if he can live to reach it." The 
doctor mounted another and followed. The faithful animal kept down the divide a 
short distance, and then turned square down the steep mountain. Through deep 
snow-drifts, over frightful ]>recipice8, down, down, he pushed, unguided and unurged, 
as if he knew the lives of the two men and the fate of the great expedition depended 
upon his endurance and his faithfulness, and into the thick timber, and stopped sud- 
denly over a bai"e spot, and as the doctor dismounted — the ^lexican was too far gone — 
behold t)ie very fire-place of their morning camp ! Two brands of fire were yet alive 
and smoking ; plenty of timber in reach. The butfalo hides had done much to protect 
the doctor, and providentially he could move about and collect dry limbs, and soon 
had a rousing fire. The guide revived, but both were badly frozen. They remained 
in this secluded hole in the mountains several days, till the cold and the storm abated. 

At another time, with another guide, on ihe head- waters of the Arkansas, after 
traveling all day in a terrible storm, they reached a small river for camp, but with- 
out a stick of wood anywhere to be had except on the other side of the stream, which 
was covered with ice. but too thin to support a man erect. The storm cleared away, 
and the night bid fair to be intensely cold; besides, they must have tire to prepare 
bread and food. The doctor took his ax in one hand and a willow stick in the other, 
laid himself upon the thin ice, and spreading his arms and legs, he worked himself 
over on his breast, cut his wood and slid it over, and returned in the same way. 

That was the last time the doctor enjoyed the luxury of his ax — so indispensable 
at that season of the year, in such a country. That night a wolf poked his nose 
under the foot of the bed where the ax had been placed for safe-keeping, and took it 
oif for a leather string that had been wrapped around the split helve. 

DR. whitman's SUCCKSSFUL MISSION AT WASHINGTON. 

On reaching the settlements, Dr. Whitman found that many of the now old Ore- 
gonians — Waldo, Applegate, Hamtree, Xeyser and others— who had once made calcu- 
lations to come to Oregon, had abandoned the idea because of the representations from 
Washington that every attempt to take wagons and ox teams through the Rocky and 
Blue Mountains to the Columbia had failed. Dr. Whitman saw at once what the stop- 
ping of wagons at Fort Mall every year meant. The representations i)nrported to 
come from Secretary Wel>ster, but really from Governor Simpson, who, magnifying the 
statements of his chief trader. Grant, at Fort Hall, declared the Americans must be 
going mad, from their repeated fruitless attempts to take wagons and teams through 
the impassable regions of the Columbia, and that the women and children of those 
wild fanatics hail been saved from a terrible death only by the repeated and philan- 
thropic labors of Mr, (4rant, at Fort Hall, in furnishing them with horses. The doctor 
told these men as he met them tliat his only object in crossing the mountains in the 
dead of winter, at the risk of his life, and through untold sufferings, was to take back 
an American emigration that summer through the mountains to the Columbia with 
their wagons and their teams. The route was practicable. We had taken our cattle 
and our families through seven years before. They had nothing to fear ; but to be ready 
on his return. The stopping of wagons at Fort Hall was a Hudson Bay Company 
scheme to prevent the settling of the country by Americans, till they could settle it 



22 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

with their own stihjeets from the Selkirk settlemeut. This news spiead like fire 
throngh ^Nlissonri, as will be seen Irom Zacrey's statement. The doctor pushed on to 
Washington and immediately sought an interview with Secretary Webster — both 
being from the same State— and stated to him the ol»jectof his crossingthe nioiuitaius, 
and laid before him the great imj)ortance of < iregou to the United States. Hut Mi'. 
Webster lay too near Cape Cod to see tilings in the same light with his lellow-statesmau 
who had transferred his worldly interests to the Pacitic cojist He awarded sincerity 
to the missionary, but could not admit for a moment that the short residence of six 
years could give the doctt)r the knowledge of the country possessed by Governor Simp- 
son, who had almost grown up in the country, and had traveled every part of it, and rep- 
resents it as one unbroken wasteof sand deserts and impassable mountains, tit only for 
the beaver, the gray bear, and the savage. Besides, he had about traded it off with 
Governor Simpson, to go into the Ashburton treaty, for a cod-hshery on Newfoundland. 
The doctor next sought, through Seuutor Linn, an interview Avith President Tyler, 
who at once appreciated his solicitude and his timely representations of Oregon, and 
especially his disinterested though hazardous undertaking to cross the Ro(dvy Moun- 
tains in the winter to take back a caravan of wagons, fie said that, although the 
doctor's representations of the character of the country, and the possibility of reach- 
ing it by wagon route, were in direct contradiction to those of Governor Simpson, his 
frozen limbs were sufficient proof of his sincerity, and his missionary character was 
sufficient guarantee for his lionesty, and lit; woulil, therefore, as President, rest upon 
these and act accordingly; would detail Fremont with a military force to escort the 
doctor's caravan through the mountains; and no more action should be had toward 
trading off Oregon till he couhl henr the result of the ex])editi<)n. If the doctor could 
establish a wagon route through the mountains to the Columbia River, pronounced 
inipossible by Governor Simpson and Ashburton, he would use his intluence to hold 
on to Oregon. The great desire of the doctor's American soul. Christian withal, that 
is, the jiledge of the President that the swapping of Oregon with England for a cod- 
lishery should stop for the ]>resent, was attained, although at the risk of life, and 
through great sufferings, and uns(»licited, and without the promise or expectation of 
a dollar's reward from any source. And now, (iod giving him life and strength, he 
would do the rest, that is, connect the Missouri and Columbia rivers with a "agon 
track so dee]) and plain that neither national envy nor sectional fanaticism would ever 
blot it out. And when the 4th of September, 184o, saw the rearof the doctor's caravan 
of nearly two hundred wagons with which he started from Missouri last of April, 
emerge irom the western shades of the Blue ;\lountainsupon the plains of the Columbia, 
the greatest work was tinished ever accomplished by one man ibr Oregon on this coast. 
And through that great emigration, during that whole summer, the doctor was their 
everywhere-i)resent angel of mercy, ministering to the sick, helping the weary, 
encouraging the wavering, cheering the mothers, mending wagons, setting broken 
bones, hunting stray oxen ; climbing precipices, now in the rear, now in the center, 
now at the front; in the rivers looking out fords through the(iuicks;inds, in the deserts 
looking out water; in the dark mountains lo(d<ing out passes; at noontide or mid- 
night, as though those thousands were his own children, and those wagons and those 
flocks were his own property. Although he asked not and expected not a dollar as a 
reward from any source, he felt himself abundantly rewarded when he saw the desire 
of his heart accomplished, the great wagon route over the mountains established, 
and Oregon in a fair way to be occupied with American settlements and American 
commerce. And especially he felt himself doubly paid, when, at the end of his suc- 
cessful expedition, and standing alive at his home again on the b:inks of the Walla- 
Walla, these thousands of his fellow summer pilgrims, wayworn and sunbrowued, 
took him by the hand and thanked him with tears for what he had done. 

During the doctor's absence his Hour mill, with a duaiitity of grain, had been burned, 
and conse(|uently he found but a small supply at his station on his return raised by 
Mr. (ieiger, a young missionary. lint what he had in the way of grain, garden vege- 
tables, and cattle, he gladly furnished the needy emigranrs at the very low figure of 
the Willamette prices, which was six hundred per cent lower thnn what they had 
been compelled to jniy at Forts Hall and Boise, and one-half lower than they are to-day 
in the same country. And this was his practice every year till himself and wife and 
fourteen emigrants were murdered, in the fall of 1847, because, as tieneral Bram- 
lette says, "they were American citizens,"' and not, as I am bold to say and can 
prove, because he was a physician. Shame on the American that will intimate such 
a thing. The general, who is the vicar-general of the papal hosts on this coast, does 
not thank you for such an excuse. He tells you plainly it was to break up the 
American settlements on this coast. 

Often the good doctor would let every bushel of his grain go to the passing emi- 
grants in the fall, and then would have to depend ujion me for breadstuffs for the 
winter and the whole year till next harvest for his own large family and the scores of 
emigrants who every year were obliged to stop at his station on account of sickness or 
given-out teams. Although the doctor had done so much for his country, it seems his 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 23 

blood was necessary to .arouse the Goverument to take formal possession of this coast; 
as it was his death liy savages that sent the devoted J. L. Meek over the mountains to 
Washington in tlie spring of 1848, to beg the Government, in behalf of the citizens of 
this coast, to send us help and to extend its jurisdiction over us. That prayer was 
answered by act of Congress, approved August 14, 1848. — Lecture hij Bev.H.H. Spalding. 

GENERAL LOVEJOY'S TESTIMONY — WHITMAN SWIMMING — ICE FLOATING — GRAND 
RIVER — MERCURY 30 DEGREES BELOW ZERO. 

I was the traveling comi)anion of Doctor Whitman in that arduous and trying jour- 
ney, but at this late hour it will be almost impossible to give many of the thrilling 
scenes and hair-breadth escapes we went through, traveling, as we did, almost the 
entire route, through a hostile Indian country, and suffering from the snows and the 
intense cold. We started, Octoi)er 3, 1842, and reached Fort Hall in 11 days. Took 
a southern route via Taos and iSanta Fe. From Fort Hall to Fort Winter we met 
with terribly severe weather. The deep snows caused us to lose much time. Here 
we took a new guide for Fort Macumpagna. on Grand River, in Spanish country. 
Passing over high mountains, we encountered a terrible snow storm, that compelled 
us to seek shelter in a dark defile, and although we made several attempts we were 
detained some ten days, when we got upon the mountains and wandered ibr days, 
when the guide declared he was lost, and would take us no further. This was a terri- 
ble blow to the doctor. But he determined not to give it up, and returned to the fort 
for another guide, I remaining with the horses, feeding them on cotton wood bark. 
The seventh day he returned. We reached, as our guide informed ns, (irand River, 
600 yards wide, which was frozen on either side about one-third. The guide regarded 
it too dangerous; but the doctor, nothing daunted, was the first to take the water. 
He mounted his horse, and the guide and myself pushed them off the ice into the 
boiling, foaming stream. Away they went, completely under water, horse and all, 
but directly came up, and after bufieting the waves and foaming current, he made for 
the ice on the opposite side, a long way down the stream — leaped upon the ice, and 
soon had his noble animal by his side. The guide and I forced in the pack animals, 
and followed the doctor's example, and were soon drying our frozen clothes by a 
comfortable fire. We reached Taos in about 30 days. V\'e suffered from intense cold, 
and from want of food, compelled to use the fiesh of dogs, mules, or such other ani- 
mals as came in our reach. We remained about 1.") days, and left for Bent's Fort, 
which we reached 3d January. The doctor left here on the 7th, at which time we 
parted, and I did not meet him again till above Laramie, in July, on his way to 
Oregon with a train of emigrants. 

I have no doubt the doctor's interviews with the President and others resulted 
greatly to the benefit of Oregon and the entire coast. 

A. L. LOVEJOY. 

Wm. H. Cray, Esq. 

DISINTERESTED PATRIOTISM OF THE MARTYR WHITM.AN. 

Let it not be forgotten that our rei^ublic is indebted to the enlightened patriotism 
of Marcus Whitman, who heroically defied the dangers of a winter's journey across 
the continent, and by the communication of iin])ortant facts to our Government pre- 
vented the cession of a large portion of our Pacific domain to Great Britain. 

A. L. LINDSLEY, D. I)., Moderator. 
E. R. GEARY, Clerk. 
Oregon Presbytery, Pacific Coast. - 

WHITMAN NOT AN HOUR TOO SOON — HON. EL^VOOD EVANS'S TESTIMONY. 

There is no doubt that the arrival of Dr. Whitman was opportune. The President 
was satisfied that the Territory was worth the efibrt to save it. The delay incident to 
a transfer of negotiations to London was fortunate, for there is reason to believe that 
if formal negotiations had been renewed in Washington, and that for the sake of set- 
tlement of the protracted controversy, and the only remaining nuadjudicatcd cause 
of difference between the two governments, had the offer been renewed of the 49th 
parallel to the Columbia, and thence down that river to the Pacific Ocean, it would 
have been accepted. The visit of Whitman committed the President against any 
such settlement at that time. — Ho7i. Elwood Evans. \ 

DANIEL WEBSTER ALLEGES THAT WHITMAN SAVED THE PACIFIC WEST. 

• 

A niarh/r of civilization. — We are beginning somewhat to appreciate our Great West, 
and to hold in deserved regard those pioneers of civilization who opened to us its 
wonderful possibilities. One of those pioneers, however, whose life was sacrificed to 
his patriotic zeal, has not, it seems to us, received the honor which his services and 



24 EAKLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

sufferings merit. It is not as widely known as it should be, that an important part of 
our territory beyond the Kocky Mountains was finally secured to the United States 
by the efforts of Dr. Marcus Whitman. * * " * * 

A personal friend of Mr. Webster, a legal gentleman, and with whom he conversed 
on the subject several times, remarked to the writer of this article: "It is safe to 
assert that our country owes it to Dr. Whitman and liis associate missionaries that all 
the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, and south as far as the Columbia River, 
is not now owned by England, and held by the Hudson's Bay Company. — Xew York 
Independent, January, 1870. 

WHITMAN AMI) THIS HEROIC WOMAN LOST THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY WEST 
OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 

In contirmatiou of this opinion (that the Protestant missionary Whitman saved the 
country) we find a writer in the Colonial 3Iagazine using this language : " Uy a strange 
and unpardonable oversight of the local ofjicers, missionaries from the United States 
were allowed to take religious charge of the population, (Indians,) and these artful 
men lost no time in introducing such a number of their countrymen as to reduce the 
influence of the British settlers to comj)lete iusigniticance." Whitman had disap- 
jiointed their gigantic schemes and the disappointment was severe. It is not too much, 
then, to say that Doctor Whitman and Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding lost their lives 
in consequence of the endeavors above described. — Missionary Herald, December, 1866. 

An unyielding j)iirpose was formed by Doctor Whitman to go East. Mr. Walker and 
myself were decidedly oi)posed; Mr. Si)alding was in favor and we yielded only when 
it became evident that he would go even if he had to become disconnected from the 
mission to do so. Extravagant language has been used expressive of the conlideuce 
of the emigrants of 1848 in his ability to conduct them through difficulties which, in 
the estimation of many, were regarded as utter impossibilities. — Rev. Dr. Ellis, 
Associate Missionary of Dr. IVhitman. 

Senator Benton said on the Senate floor in 1825: "The child is born who will see 
the commerce of the Indies concentrating in American cities on the Pacific shores, 
climbing the Rocky Mountains, rolling down their eastern slopes to enrich and 
enlarge our Atlantic cities.'' 

And Isaiah hath said: "Until the spirit be found upon us from on high and the 
waste region be a fruitful held." 

Crossing the continent in 1836, when not a single wheel had crushed the wild sage 
of the desert, and that, too, as an exile — voluntary, to be sure, but none the less an 
exile --from the land of schools, churches, and home, to the depths of an unknown 
wilderness, was a very diflerent thing from what, twenty years later, it was found 
to be by the hundreds and thousands who traveled the same path without even think- 
ing it was missionary zeal that opened the easy waj' they were then treading. The 
writer has followed nearly every step of the way thus promised for him, and with 
wonder and amazement at the courage, the faith, and the hope of the evangel band, 
who long before were the arant couriers of religion and happiness to the laud where 
now he dwells. Mrs. Whitman and Mi'S. Spalding, fresh from the homes of refine- 
ment, with the dew of their love still sparkling on their eyelids, yet with the courage 
of martyrs and the faith of saints traveled that long wearisome way, the lirst com- 
missioned angels of mercy to the land beyond the mountains slumbering in the night 
of heathen ages. — Ber. H. K. Hines, in Ladies' Rcjw^iitory. 

The 4th day of July, 1836, our missionary party found themselves in South Pass, 
the line that divides the waters of the Atlantic from those of the Pacific. And when 
we remember that these noble missionaries passed these gates of the Rocky JMountains 
six years before J. C. Fremont discovered this South Pass, wehave another illustrious 
proof of the fact that grace is mightier than cupidity to lead men and women forth 
from the limits of the seen to the mysterious and adventurous unknown. The day be- 
fore reaching rendezvous, the missionaries were overjoyed to meet a com])any of In- 
dians from the far-oflNes Perces country. They had come to meet the missionaries, in 
fulfillment of a promise made to Dr. Whitman the year before, and here, near a thou- 
sand miles from the end of their journey, to welcome and aid them forward. The chiefs 
were inviti'd to the missionary board that night, and here commenced the friendship 
of that nation that bound them to the American people and Government through all 
theconflictsofsubsecjuentyears. There,about thirty miles southwestofwhatis known 
as Fremont's Peak, and forty west of the summit of the Rocky ]Mountains, were forged 
by Christian love those chains that bind the heart of that nation, tlie noblest, truest, 
bravest, and most devoted of all the tribes of the interior of our continent to the Amer- 
icans to this day. Three or four hundred mountain men and perhaps two thousand 
Indians had gathered at the rendezvous, and for several days this valley of the Colo- 
rado was the scene of the wildest excitement. The appearance of two cultivated and 
talented white women in this fierce throng was like the rising of a new day to the 
wild adventurers of the chase and the scout. They were the living images of distant 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 25 

uiotbers and sistei's, and as these bronzed men looked upon them tears snffused their 
eyes. The piety, intelligence, and kindne^'S of those missionary ladies gave lavish con- 
tribution of happiness to these dreary hearts. Seventeen years later one of these men 
related to me, " from that day I was a better man." On the Slst day of August, 1836, 
the mission band emerged from the timbered depths of the Bine Monntains, and stood 
on an elevated prairie snmmit overlooking the great valley of the Middle Colnmbia. 
The deserts and the wilderness were passed. Unknown to statesmen and really intent 
only in tilling the measnre of high religions tonsecratiou, these wives had solved the 
problem of the future of thelaud which God now showed them. The prayers, thesougs, 
of that evening were like those of Moses, on Nebo, or Miriam, at the Red Sea crossing. 

These prayers jarred principalities and powers. These songs were a prophesy 
fulfilled, fulfilling, and to bo fulfilled over a land tben greeting unconsciously the 
dawning of the day of ximerican civilization. 

In the fait of 1842 it became apparent to Dr. Whitman, from oft conversations with 
gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, and from the sudden arrival of a colony of 
one hundred and forty souls from the Hudson's Bay settlement on the Red River of 
the North, to settle permanently on these Pacific shores, that a deep laid plan was 
about to culminate successfully to seenre the title to Oregon to Great Britain. He 
astonished his family, the mission, and all the whites in the country, by the announce- 
ment of his determination to proceed at once to Washington and thwart, if possible, 
that design. To cross the Rocky Mountains in the deep winter, to brave the cold, to 
meet the storms of the mountain desei'ts, to dare almost unattended the dangers of 
8a\age ambush were to them fearful facts; to him, only the necessary incidents in 
the consummation of his grand and patriotic conception. Vlis wife alone, of all around 
with whom he could advise, seemed capable of rising to the lofty idea. These two 
great minds comprehended the issues of the hour. They saw the deprivations, and 
toils, and trials of the present, bringing forth fruit of wealth, and rest, and safety to 
a nation of freemen soon to swarm through the valleys of the Pacific. Which exhibited 
the greater heroism, he in encountering the fearful perils of that journey through the 
mountains of Utah and New Mexico, or she in remaining almost alone among the sav- 
ages of the northwest coast for the year of his absence, it is difficult to tell. Both 
acts rise into the morally sublime. On the arrival of Dr. Whitman in Washington, 
2d March, 1843, he found he had not started one day too soon to save the northwest 
coast of the United States. The Webster-Ashburton treaty, by which the United 
States were to relinquish to England the title to that part of Oregon north of the 
Columbia, was about to be executed. On his representations of the value of the 
country, and of the i)racticability of a wagon road across the continent to the Colum- 
bia, the President hesitated, but when these representations were enforced by the 
fact that the doctor's own wife, accompanied by only one white lady companion, had 
already crossed the continent and were now in the valley of the Walla-Walla, lone 
representatives of Christianity and American civilization, he hesitated no longer, but 
adopted that course of actioii which resulted in securing to the United States the 
title to Oregon up t()49 , and will eventually give us the whole of the northwest coast. 

Once more crossing the continent at the head of the first emigration to the shores of 
the Pacific, battling the armed hostility of savages, and the wily stratagems of the 
officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, that great British monopoly which had so long 
ruled over the plains of the Columbia, and which dreaded the presence and rivalry of 
simple American citizens. Dr. Whitman again reached his beloved Waiilatpu, his 
mission home upon the banks of the Walla- Walla, in the autumn of 1843. By those 
whom he had led to the country he was regarded now, not as a missionary merely, 
but as well a statesman and a hero; by those whose plans and machinations he had 
defeated, he was regarded with coldness and distrust. 

Without reciting the mournful details of that tragic day which made Waiilatpu 
forever famous in the annals of missionary martyrdom, we close our record. But his- 
tory will write on. After ages will pay their due tribute of honor to the brave and 
Christian men and women who were alike the founders of empire and the servants of 
Christ. Missionary zeal will relume its ardor at the mention of Waiilatpu, and with 
a mightier consecration to the faith, go forth conquering and to conquer. 

On the banks of the Walla- Walla, in a lowly grave, unmarked by an inscription, the 
mortal I'emains of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman are sluuibering away the years. They sleep 
not far from the spot where the consecrated years of their mature life were so lavishly 
given to that noblest of all work, raising the fallen and saving the lost. Living, they 
were the peers of such heroes and heroines as Dr. and Ann Hasseletine Judson; and 
dyiug; their memory is entitled to the same enshriuement in the grateful regards of a 
Church and State, indebted to them for one of the finest illustrations of unselfish 
patriotism and of the purity and power of ancient faith. And when He whom they 
served with such special devotion shall assemble His best beloved, they of the eastern 
shall greet those of the western shore of the Pacific, and hail them fellow heirs to 
martyr's robe and crown. — Bev. H. K. Hines, of Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, 
in Ladies' Eepository for September, 1S6S. 



26 EARLY LA150RS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

whitman's KKPOKT in FKBRUARY, 1843 — COLLECTS ONE THOUSAND SUULS TKOM 

WESTERN STATES. 

Brownsville, February 7, 18(58, 
Dear Sir: Iu answer to your iniiniries, I wonkl any Ibat my father and bis family 
emlj^rated to Oien'on in 1843, from the State of Texas. I was then 17 years old. The 
occasion of my lather staitiuii' that season for this conntry, as also severalofonr neigh- 
bors, was a i)ubli(;at ion by Dr. Whitman, or from bis representations, concerning Oregon 
and the ronte from the States to Oregon. In the pamphlet the doctor described Ore- 
gon, the soil, climate, and its desirableness for Americon colonies, and said that he had 
crossed the Rocky Monntains that winter principally to take back that season a 
train of wagons to Oregon. We had been told that wagons <'0nld not be taken beyond. 
Fort Hall. Hnt in this pamphlet the doctor assnrod his countrymen that wagons 
could be taken through froui Fort Hall to the Columbia Ri\'er, and to the Dalles, 
and fiom thence by boats to the Willamette; that himself and mission party had 
taken their families, cattle, and wagons through to the Columbia, six years before. 
It was this assni'ance of the missionary that induced my father and several of his 
neighbors to sell out and start at once for this country. 

The doctor was of great service to the emigrants as physician, and in looking out 
fords in the I'latte and passes in the mountains. At Fort Hall the officers of 1 lu^ 
Hudson's Bay Company told us we could never get our wagons and families through to 
Oregon, we must go to California. The Hudson's Bay Company would not allow 
Americans to settle in Oregon. Dr. Whitman told us if we would trust him, he would 
see that we reached the Dalles by 20tli September. We diil trust him, and most 
faithfully did he make his word good, and in many ways did he render most invalu- 
able service to the emigration. Agreeably to instructions which the doctor had 
left with his Indians the year before, Stielvus, a Cayuse chief, and his young men, met 
the doctor between Bear River and Fort H.ill, and staid with us, and were of great 
service in looking out the route through the Blue Mountains, every foot of which 
ground these Indians were accinainted with. Stickus would ride down two or three 
horses in a day, looking out the best passes. These were the tirst wagons and teams 
to pass through these mountains. Dr. Whitman furnished us with an Indian guide 
from his mission station to the Dalles without charge. He advised us all to go on 
to the Willamette. He furnished us with beef and flour at Willamette prices. 

•JOHN ZACHREY. 
Rev. H. H. Spalding. 



v.— THE WHITMAN MASSACRE AND THE ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP THE 
AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS. 

After visiting the sick in the Indian camp on the Umatilla, Dr. Whitman took tea with 
Bishop Blanchette and General Brouilette, who had arrived at the Unuitiila on Satui- 
day. TZie general assured him that he would be over to Waiilatpu on Tuesday. The 
doctor returned to our camp about sundown ; was much encouraged, and thought that 
we had everything to h()])e from the Brouilette visit on Tuesday. The severe sickness 
at home maile it necessary for the doctor to return that night, and although more tit for 
a bed of rest, from his increasing labors and cares, he took me by the hand and baile me 
farewell, more hopeful than I had seen him, (and Brouiletfereferstothis; O. the wretch 
that could create a false hope to make human anguish the deeper, ) mounted his bor- 
rowed mule, ga\ e whij). and was out of sight. Eighteen yi'ars liave passed away ami I 
have seen him no more, and shall not till I meet him, by the grace of our Lor<l. in the 
streets of the New. Jerusalem, where are no more deaths and all tears are wiped away. 
He had aboitt twenty-eight miles to ride, and did not reach his home till the dawn of the 
2!tth — the bloody 29th of Nov'^mber, 1847. And now I come to the details of thatand the 
eight following bloody days. And my heart sickens and my hand trembles even at this 
late date, as I attempt to portray that bloody tragedy ; not so much on account of tlie 
fearful, terrible work of theiuunediateageutM, the naked painted savages ; strongmen, 
young men, American citizens, fathers, husbands, alluied, hewed down and ripped 
open ; ahusband's heart converted into a foot-ball in sight of a helpless wife, the terri- 
fied daughter forced into the arms of the naked savage to be his wife TV*ho has just shot 
down her father who lies gasping at her feet ; the helpless women, young women, girls 
so young, that the knife had to be used, writhing in the hands of unrestrained brutality ; 
hogs and dogs running about with parts of human heads and lungs in their months; 
and — O, my God! has hell swallowed uj) the earth? — with all, and in the mi<l8t 
of all, the priest of God administering the holy ordinance of baptism upon the blood- 
stained children of these bloody savages. I say I shudder to attempt a recital, 
not so much on account of the horrible character of the tragedy as froui the convic- 
tion that the white man was concerned in it from beginning to end, to break up the 
American settlements and regain this country. The details of that tragedy, which .1 . 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 27 

Ross Browne says involved this country in a twelve years' war, and the causes that 
a]ipear to have led to it, I have received lioni eye- witnesses who escaped, from emigrants, 
from reports of the army, and from tlie trial of the five Indians who were executed at 
Oregon City. jNIuch of this testimony is given under the oath of the widows and daugh- 
ters, who were fearful sufferers, and tlic few who escaped. I would go to an indi- 
vidual and take down in writing wliat be or she knew, and then go before a magistrate 
and tbe individual would make oath to the statement, the ofiScer certifying. 

On arrivingat home the doctor and his wife were seen in tears, mucbagitated. The 
doctor sent for Findley, a Hudson's IJay half-breed with a Cayuse wife, w^ho lived in a 
lodge about 100 yards distant. "Findley, I understand the Indians are to kill me and 
Mr. Spalding; do you know anything about iti?" "I should know, doctor; you have 
nothing to fear; there is no danger.'' O, the wretch that could thus throw ttiera off 
their guard I The savages were at that moment in council in his lodge. Early in tbe 
morning an Indian came in for a coffin and wioding-sbeet and tbe doctor to assist in 
burying a child. (Wealw.ays furnished these, and assisted in burying the dead, if 
possible). On returning from the grave the doctor was much excited, and said to 
bis wife, "What does this mean, only one Indian at the grave, while multitudes are 
collected on foot and on horse? " But a beef bad been brought in, shot down, and 
was being dressed, and was thought to have been tbe cause. 

It is desirable to describe tbe premises, and the number of families stopping at the 
station to winter. ^ The doctor's odofte dwelling-bouse stood on the north bank of Walla- 
Walla River, 2-5 miles from Fort Walla-Walla, now Walula, and one-half mile above 
the mouth of Fnsha or Mill Creek, facing west, well finished and furnished with a 
good library and a large cabinet of choice specimens. Connected with the north end 
was a large Indian room, and an ell extending from the east seventy feet, consisting of 
kitchen, sleeping-room, school-room and church. One hundred yards east stood a large 
adofte building, \ At a point forming a triangle with tbe above line stood the null, 
granary, and shops; a saw-mill and dwelling-house 18 miles up Mill Creek; Fort 
Col villo 200 miles north; the mission station of Kevs. Eells and Walker among the 
Spokane and Flathead Indians 140 miles north; our mission at tbe Dalles, 175 miles 
west; my own mission among theNez Perces on Clearwater, at the mouth of Lapwai, 
110 miles east. There were connected with or stopping at the Waiilatpu or Whitman 
station seventy-two souls, mostly American immigrants on their way from the States to 
the Willamette T"alley, stopping to winter, distributed as follows: At the saw-mill, 
Mr. and Mrs. Young and 3 grown-up sons, from Missouri; Mr. and ISIrs. Smith and 5 
children— eldest daughter, l(i — from Illinois. In the blacksmith shop, Mr. Canfield, 
wife and 5 children, eldest daughter of 16, from Iowa. In the large building, Mr. 
Kimball, wife and 5 children, eldest daughter of 16, from Indiana; Mr. Hall, wife and 
5 children, eldest a daughter of 10, from Illinois; Mr. Saun<lers, wife and 5 children, 
eldest a daughter of 14, from lowe; Mrs. Hays and child; Mr. Marsh and daughter, 
and Mr. Gill, tailor. In tbe Indian room, Mr. Osborne, wife and 3 children, from Oregon, 
all sick. The Doctor's family consisted of 22 persons, viz, himself and wife, Mr. Rogers, 
a missionary, seven adopted children of one family by the name of Sager, whose 
parents bad died on tbe plains in 1844; 3 adopted half breed children, one a daughter 
of the mountaineer Bridger, one a daughter of J. L. Meek, and a half breed Spanish 
boy; Miss Bewley, a pious young lady of 23, sick up stairs, and her brother and Mr. 
Sails, both sick in the sleeiiing-room ; Mr. Hoffman, of New York ; .1. Stantield, a Cana- 
dian ; Lewis, the Catholic half-breed ; two half-breed boys and my own daughter Eliza, 
10 years of age, in tbe school-room. Mr. Marsh was running tlie mill; Mr. Hall was 
laying a floor in the cook-room; Mr. Saunders teacbing the school, which was just 
taken up for the afternoon ; Messrs. Hoffman, Kimball and Canfield were dressing the 
beef between tbe mil! and blacksmith shop; Mr. Rogers upon tbe river bank; John, 
eldest of the Sager family, and tbe Bridger girl, lay in the kitchen sick; tbe doctor, 
his wil'e,Catberine Sager,13years old, in thesitting room with three very sick children. 

Tbe Indians, with weapons concealed under their blankets, were ready at all these 
points, waiting a signal from Joe Lewis, who stood at tbe south door watching both 
the doctor and those without. Mrs. Osborne, for the fijst time in six weeks, had 
stepped upon tbe floor, and .stood talking with Mrs. Whitman near the sick children. 
An Indian opened tbe kitchen door and called to the doctor for medicine, who 
accordingly went in and sat down by the Indian, and administered a potion to him. 

AVhile the sick Indian engrossed tbe doctor's attention, Tamabos stepped behind 
him, drew a pipe tomahawk from under his blanket, and buried it in tbe doctor's bead. 
He fell partly forward, and a second blow on tbe back of the head brought him to the 
floor. The Indian bad to put bis foot ^n the doctor's head to tear the tomahawk out, 
and said : " I have killed my father." i With the tirst blow upon tbe doctor's bead, the 
terrible work commenced on all sides at the same time. ' John Sager, lying .sick in tbe 
same room, made some defense, Itut was shot in several places aiid bis throat cut, and 
tbe body thrown partly acro.ss Dr. Whitman. Mrs. Osborne says, immediately after 
the doctor went into the kitchen, an Indian opened the door, spoke in native to Mrs. 
W., who had only time to raise her bauds, and exclaim: "Oh, my God!" when tbe guns 



28 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

fired, and the crash of weapons and the yells commenced. We can describe the scene 
at but one point at once. Four Indians stood around Mr. Gill, the tailor, in the large 
house, weapons concealed, awaiting the signaL I Three shots were bred at him, but 
one taking etl'ect, breal^ing his back. The suft'erer lingei'ed in great agony, begging 
the women to shoot him in the head, and expired about 12 o'clock. The women natu- 
rally ran to the doctor's liouse, meeting savages naked, painted, yelling, laughing, 
frantic, hewlinir, cutting down their victims everywhere. As they cauic into the 
kitchen, Mrs. VV. was attempting to move her husband. .John was gasping. The 
Bridger girl was covered with blood and seemed dead, but it was the blood from Dr. 
W. Next day she was lonnd alive. Sails and Bewley, wholay sick in nextdoor, were 
groaning terribly, but next day were found nnwonnded. Mrs. Hall, who stopped to 
assist Mis. Whitman, says: "The doctor's ribs were smashed.'' They dragged him 
into the sitting-room, and applied a bag of hot ashes to stop the blood. Mrs. W., 
kneeling over her gasping husband, said: " Doctor, do you know me?" The dying 
missionary was to speak no more; he only moved his lips. The dear wife saw her ter- 
rible fate. She raised hei'self and exclaimed, '' Oh, God, thy will be done ! I am left 
a widow. Oh, may my parents never know this!'' The Indians seemed to have left 
the house. The terrible scene without— the roar of guns, the crash of war clubs and 
tonialiawks, the groans of the dying, the screams of women, the howling of dogs, the 
yells ol'the savage demons, naked, painted with black and white — luiturally attracted 
the attention of ]\Irs. Whitman, and she stepped to a south window, but instantly 
raised her hands and exclaimed, "Joe, is this you doing all this? "'and the glass rattled. 
She fell, the bullet having passed through her right breast. She lay some time appa- 
rently dead, when she revived so as to speak ; and her first words, before she could 
raise her head, her heart's blood fast running away and mingling with the blood of 
her gasping husband and two others who had been brought in wounded, were a prayer : 
"Oh, my Saviour, take care of my children, now to be left a second time orphans 
and among Indians." .loe Lewis was undoubtedly the one who shot Mrs. Whitman, 
and who took the lead in this bloody tragedy; and but for him, his teasing the 
Indians, and his false representations, the Indians would never have killed their best 
friends anil butchered the Americans. He told the writer he was born in Canada and 
educated in Maine. He was a good scholar and good mechanic, and had the appear- 
ance of an eastern half-breed, spoke the English and his native tongue and was a 
-devoted Catholic, wearing his cross and counting iiis beads often. The emigrants of 
that year saw him first at Fort Hall, and Mrs. Lee testifies that he was several times 
heard to say, "There will be a change in that country ( VValia-Walla) when the 
Fathers get down.'' He told the Indians that he was a Chinook; that the Americans 
had stolen him when a child. He had grown up in xVmerica; knew the Americans, 
hated the Indians, and intended to exterminate them ; would send missionaries first, 
and then the multitiiile would come and take tbe country. Tliey had better kill Dr. 
Whitman and the missionaries, and what Americans there were: they could do it, 
and he would help them. They would receive plenty of ammunition from below. 
After the butchery, he was protected as never an American was; went oft" with most 
of the money and valuables plundered frctm the helpless widows and orphans, and 
has been seen at the nortiieast stations; was evidently engaged in Canatla to do this 
work, as he came over with the party from Europe. 

Mr. Canfield, one of the three dressing the beef, who escaped, and finally reached my 
station, in the countryof the Xez Perce Indians, says: " Wesawmultitudesof Indians 
collecting on foot and hm-se, but thought it was on account of the beef. The first 
notice was a shock like terrific peals of tlmnder, accompanied l)y an unearthly yell of 
the savages. I sprang up, but saw ourselves perfectly enveloped by naked Indians, 
whose guns seemed I»lazingin our faces. I turned twice before I saw an opening; saw 
Mr. Kimball fall; sprang for the opening, and through the thick smoke, dashing the 
gnus aside with my hands. At a little distance I looked back and saw an Indian tak- 
ing aim at me, and afterward found that a ball had entered my buck and passed 
around between the skin and ribs, where it remains. I passed my family in tlie shop, 
and catching iij)a child, ran into the large bnilding, upstairs, and in to the garret, where 
I looked down from tlif window u])on the whole sct'n(\ Saw the luiked savages painted 
blade and white, yelling and lea])ing like flying demons, cajis of eagle feathers stream- 
ing, guns roaring, tomahawks, war clubs, and knives, brandishing over the heads of their 
victims; white women running and screaming, and the Indian women singing and 
dancing. Saw Kimball run around the north end of the doctor's house, covered with 
blood, and on(i arm swinging, pursued by Indians. Saw Hott'mau fall several times, 
but would rise amid the Hying tomahawks, till he was l)acked uj) in the corner of 
the doctor's house, when two Indians came up on horses with long-handled tomahawks, 
over-reached, cut him down, and he rose no more. Saw some Indians apparently 
trying to protect our women and children. Saw Mr. Kogersrun into the house from the 
river, with one arm swinging, and pursued by four Indians; also saw Mrs. Saunders, 
led by two Indians, go into Findley's lodge. Saw .Joe Lewis and a whole crowd of 
Indians and Indian women driving our school children from the school door into the 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 29 

kitchen, with tomahawks, M'uns, and knives hraudishing over their little heads and 
in their faces. My heart fainted for them, but I could do nothing. Paid Joe Stan- 
field a watch to bring me a horse to a given point of brush after dark. Went there 
and waited all night, but no horse came." 

Four Indians attacked Mr. Hall lying on the floor in the cook-room; the first gun 
missed fire, when Mr. Hall wrenched the gnu from tlie Indian, and they ran, giving 
him time to reach the brush, where he lay till dark, and that night found his way to 
Fort Walla-Walla, but was turned out, put over the Columbia River, and has never 
been heard from since. It is said he was immediately killed by the Indians. There 
were in the fort, besides the gentlemen in charge, some twenty white men, including^<- 
8ome ten Catholic priests, who had arrived in the country about six weeks before, under 
the immediate superintendencj- of Bisho]> Blanchett and Vicar-General Brouilette, a 
part via Caj>e Horn and part by the overland rouie. It is reported that the children 
of Mr. Hall, after their arrival at the fort, Siiw the pants, caj), and sash of their father. 
As the roar and yells commenced, Mr. Saunders, the teacher, naturally opened the 
school-room door, when three Indians came up the steps and seized him. His daughter 
Helen and my daughter Eliza ran to the window. Helen screamed, " 'J'hey are killing 
my father.'' Eliza gazed a few minutes on the terriVde scene. She saw Mr. Saunders 
fall and rise several times among the tomahawks and knives, trying to reach his house, 
till two Indians came up on horses, and with long-liandled tomahawks hewed him 
down. Next day in going among the dead she found his head split open, a part lying 
at a distance ; and with her tender hands the dear child put it in its place, and assisted 
in sewing sheets around his and the other bodies. She found Hotfnian split open in 
the back, and his heart and lungs taken out; she replaced them, and sewed a sheet 
around him. His aftlicted sister, in Elmira, New York, writes me, '• I desire above all 
things to clasp that dear cliild to my bosom before I die, for her kindness to my fallen 
brother, whom I am to see no more.' Eliza saw multitudes of Indian women and 
children dancing, and naked men swinging their hatchets dripping with blood. 

In the sitting-room there were now four persons bleeding. Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, 
Kimball, and Rogers; Sager was in the kitchen. Alter the women came in, they fas- 
tened the doors and took the sick children and Mrs. W. up stairs. At the commence- 
ment the ciiildren of the school hid themselves in the loft over the school-room. To- 
wardnight Fiiidley, Joe Lewis, and several Iinlians came in, and called to the children 
to come down. Findley selected the two Manson (Hudson Bay) boys and the doctor's 
Spanish boy, to take to Walla-Walla, to save their lives, and said the others were to be 
killed by the Indian women. MyEliza caught Findley by the clothes: "Oh, Nicholas, 
save me, do ! " He pushed her away, and Lewis and the Indians huddled them down 
into the kitchen. As they were driven into the kitchen to be shot, tiiey pa.ssed over 
the bod J' of John. His brother Francis, fifteen yearsold, stooped down, took the woolen 
scarf from the gory thoat of his dying brother, and sjioke to him. .lohn gasped, and 
immediately expired. Francis said to his sister Matilda, "I shall go next," and was 
never heard to speak again. The children were huddled in a corner, where a scene that 
beggars description commenced. The large room filled up with Indian women and 
naked, painted men, yelling, dancing, scraping up the blood that was deep upon the 
floor, and flirting it, painting their guns, and brandishing their bloody tomahawks 
over the heads of these helpless little lambs, screaming, -'Shall we shootf Shall we 
shoot?" Eliza, who could understand the language, says, ''I covered my eyes with my 
apron, that I might not see the bloody tomahawk strike that was just over my head." 
Telankaikt, the hea<l chief, ( wlro was hung at Oregon City, ) stood in the door to give 
the order. In this fearfal situation these dear children were held for an hour. Those 
spared are now grown-up women and men, and scattered over this coast, and must 
ever look back upon that hour with the deepest emotions, as atiording a striking proof 
on the one hand of the malignant, unfit state of the human, unrenewed heart for the 
purity of heaven, and, on the other, of the interposing hand of Heaven. Ups and 
Moolpod, the doctor's Indian herdsmen, crawled in, threw their robes around the 
children, and huddled them out of the north door into the corner. But here the 
Indians, who seemed to have finished up the bloody work elsewhere, soon collected 
in great numbers, arranging themselves three or four deep the whole length of the 
seventy-foot ell, with their gnus drawn and pointing to the same door. This would 
bring the children, now huddled in the corner, in range. 

About this time Canfiehl saw ,Ioe Lewis at the head of a band of Indi ans break in the 
south door of the doctor's house with hie gun. They came into the sitting-room, liroke 
down the stair door, and were coming up stairs. The women collected around Mrs. 
Whitman, who lay bleeding. "The Indians are coming; we are to die; but are not 
prepared. What shall we do?" The gasping saint with her dying breath replied 
earnestly and calmly, " Go to Jesus and ask him, and He will save you." Thus the 
faithful missionary spent her last breath, who entered the church at the early age of 
thirteen. Some one said, "Putthat old gun-barrel over the stairway to frighten them." 
Mrs. W. replied, "Let all prepare to die." Mr. Rogers went to the head of the stairs, 
spoke to Tomsuekey, whosaid: "The young men have done this; they will burn the 



30 EAKLY LABOtiS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

house to-uight; yon had better all come down iiiul go over to the big house, where we 
will take care of you.'' Oh, rlie (leuu)u, thiit cduld thus throw them off their guard at 
the last moment! Eliza, ju.st out among the children, could hear all this, and knew 
now what the Indians, arranged along the house with their guns drawn, were waiting 
for. Feartnl monu'ats I'or the dear clillil, as she hear<l the steps down stairs and 
ai)]iroaching the fatal door, but of course could give no warning. Mr. Kimball, Cathe- 
rine, Elizabeth, and the sick children remained in the chamber. jNIr. Rogers, Mrs. 
Whitnum, and ?diss Hewley came down. Ilie doctor's face had been terribly cut, after 
Joe came in, but^ he was yet breatliiug slowly. ]\Irs. \V. fainted. Supposing she was 
to be saved, siie had told them to get some clothing from the bed-room. I'hey laid 
her upon a settee, and Joe and Mr. Rogers took the settee, i)assed into the kitchen. 
Miss Bewley ahead, over the body of .lohu, out of the kitchen door, ;ind about the 
length of the settee, when Mr. Rogers saw his doom, and both dro])])ed the settee. 
Mv. R. had only time to raise his hands and exclaim, "My God, have mercy!" when 
the gnus lired. An Indian seized Francis by the hair of the head, while Lewis Jerked 
one of his pistols from his belt, put the muzzle to Francis' neck and lired, blowing the 
whole charge into the boy's throat. Mr. Rogers fell upon his face; Mrs. Whitman, 
Mr. Rogers, and Francis were all three shot in several places, but not killed. The 
balls Hew all about the children, riddling their clothes. One passed through Miss 
Bewley's clothes and burned her lingers, but none of them were hit. The smoke, 
blood and brains Hew over them, as they stood trembling and silent with terror. 
Several naked savages gathered around Jliss Bewley with tomahawks drawn over 
head, but when she stopped screaming they led her away to the large house. 

And now commenced a scene beyond the reach of the pen, and which must convince 
any unprejudiced mind that there is a hell in the human heart, if nowhere else. The 
poor hel2>le8S children were compelled to witness it. The Indian women and children 
were particularly acti\e— yelling, dancing, and singing the scalp-dance, ilrs. Whit- 
man was thrown violently from the settee into the mud. They tried to ride their 
horses over the bodies, but the horses refused. They slashed the faces of their dying 
victims with their \\hips, and as they would writhe and groan, it only increased the 
glee of the Indian women and children. They leaped and screamed for Joy, throwing 
handsfnl of blood around, and drinking down the <lying agonies of their victims as a 
precious draft. These blood-stained little savages were to receive the sacred ordi- 
nance of baptism a few hours after at the hands of the priest of God — the mangled 
bodies yet lying unburied around him, the food of dogs and wolves hy night and of 
hogs and vultures by day, seemingly as pay down to the Indians for what they had 
done. The face of the sun had with<lrawn from the sight, and the shades of night 
were .settling upon the once beautiful valley of the Walla-Walla, for ages unknown 
the home and bnrying-place of the red man. but now to pass into the hands of another 
race by this covenant of the missionaries' blood. The children were led over to the 
large house. The yells of the savages died away. The horrible scene was changed 
from the dead and dying to the living and helpless, and Ijecame more territic because 
death could not come to the relief of the sufferers. Helpless women and daughters, 
with their husbands and fathers dead or dying in sight, young girls so young the 
knife had to be used, subjected to the brutalities of the naked, painted demons, four 
or five at a time glutting their hell-born passions upon one of these most to be pitied 
of our fellow mortals. 

And all this, which ought to call forth the undying sympathies of every true 
American, is made more intolerable to the surviving sufferers by being made, the 
last few years, the subject of scoffs and jeers, or cold rebuffs^ by those receiving 
extensive patronage from Government and the public. 

The three sufferers yet breathing continued to groan on till in the night, as heard 
by Mr. Osborne and family, who lay concealed under the door near by. The voice 
of Francis ceased first, then Mrs. Whitman, and last Mr. Rogers was heard to say, 
"Come, Lord .Jesus, come quickly," and was heard no more. Thus fell at her post 
the devoted Mrs. Whitman, daughter of Judge Prentiss, of Prattsbui'g, New York, 
alone, under the open heavens, no mother's hand or husband's voice to soothe her 
last moments — the cold earth her dying pillow, her own blood her winding sheet. 
The companion of my youth, we were members of the same school, of the same 
churcii, of the same hazardous journey, of the same mission. Rest, sv. eet dust, till 
Jesus shall gather up the scattered members. 

Away from her home aud tlie fricnd.s of her youth, 
She hasted, the herald of mercy and truth ; 
For the love of the Lord, and to seek for the lost. 
Soon, alas! was her fall, but she died at her post. 

She wept not horseli' that her warfare was done; 

The ))atth- w;is i'outilit aud the victory won: 

But she whisiieird of tho.se whom her heuit elunu to most — 

" Tell my sisters for me that I died at ray post.' 

And thus fell, not a "St. Bernard." nor yet an Oberliu, but Whitman, Oregon's Whit- 
man, the yearly emigrant's own Whitman; emphatically a patriot without guile, a 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 31 

Christian whose faith was measured by his works ; who counted not his life dear unto 
him if he might but do good to his fellow-beings, white or red, whose forethought, 
whose hazards, labors, and suft'eriugs, self-devised, unsolicited, unrewarded, to reach 
Washington through the snows of New Mexico, did more for Oregon and this coast 
than the labor of any other man. Go, dear brother ; your great work is done and well 
done. Already are fulfilled your remarkable words on the banks of the Umatilla, on 
that our last night : "My death may do as much good to Oregon as my life can." Only 
eighteen years have passed away this last November, 1865, and the red man is gone. 

The stranger's eye wept that iu life's brightest bloom, 
One gifted so highly should sink to the tomb. 
For ardor he lid in the van of the host; 
He fell like a hero, he died at his post. 

He asked not a stone to be scuptured with verse, 
He asked not that Fame should his merit rehearse. 
But he asked, as a boon, when he gave up the ghost, 
That his brethren might know be died at his post. 

Extensive settlements and a considerable town, schools and Christian churches, 
daily stages, and the hum of business occupy the valley of the Walla- Walla, which, but 
for the blood of Whitman, would to-day have been occuitied by Indian farms and Cay- 
use horses. Moreover, it was thedeath of Whitman thatsent .J. L. Meek to Washington, 
in the winter of 1848, as a delegate, to beg Congress to extend its jurisdiction and send 
us help, which prayer was answered by act of Congress, approved August 14, 1848. 

Under the judicious and energetic policy of Doctor Whitman, a double and noble 
object was accomplished. The way-worn,destituteemigrant,compelled to winter with 
the doctor, needed employment to procure subsistence and horses to go on the next 
spring. The Indians needed their lauds broken and rails made and had an over-abund- 
ance of horses (several chiefs had 1,000 head each) to pay. The doctor set the white 
man to work for the Indians, received pay from the Indians and paid the whites. In 
this way the Cayuse were enlarging their improvements every year, and were raising 
over ten thousand bushels of grain (including peas) yearly, and would soon have been 
so firmly fixed upon their lands ; and promising so well, the Government would never 
have attempted to move them ; and but for the blood of Whitman, the Indians would 
not have consented. They feel his blood has purchased the country which thej^ have 
forfeited by his death. 

The next day, Edward, son of the chief, and the one who met me to kill me. returned 
from the Umatilla, as stated by D. Young, and said the white chief advised him to kill 
all the Americans, and he went up to the saw-mill and was bringing down Mr. and 
Mrs. Young, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and their families, to kill them, w^hen Timothy, aNez 
Perces chief, and " Eagle," native Christians, arrived from Lapwai, and prevented it by 
saying no more Americans should be killed while they were alive. No more were 
killed. . There were now fifty women and children writhing in the hands of the bloody 
savages, and four Americans — Young, and his two remaining sons, and Smith, from the 
saw-mill. Three sick children died in the hands of the Indians. A child of Mrs Hays 
and two of the doctor's children, and Mr. Osborne and family,had reached Walla-Walla. 

ESCAPK OF MR. OSBORNE AND FAMILY. 

The almost miraculous escape of Mr. Osborne, wife and family, their cruel reception 
at Fort Walla, as given by himself. Mr. Osborne is a worthy citizen of Linn County, 
Oregon, and a devoted member of the Church of Christ. Mrs. Osborne, after enduring 
unceasing sufierings for fifteen years from successive ulcer sores around the shoulder, 
occasioned by her chills and terrific sufferings, has regained her health through a 
kind Providence. 

Mr. Osborne says: "As the guns fired and the yells commenced, I leaned my head 
upon the bed and committed myself and family to my Maker. My wife removed the 
loose floor. I dropped under the floor with my sick family in their night-clothes, tak- 
ing only two woolen sheets, a piece of bread and some cold mush, and pulled the floor 
over us. In five minutes the room was full of Indians, btit they did not discover us. 
The roar of guns, the yells of thesavages, and the crash of the clubs, and the knives, 
and the groans of the dying, continued till dark. We distinctly heard the dying groans 
of Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Rogers, and Francis, till they died away, one after the other. 
We heard Mr. Rogers's last, in a slow voice, 'Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly,' and 
heard no more. Soon after this I removed the floor, and we went out. We saw the 
white face of Francis by the door. It was warm, as we laid our hand u}3on it, but he 
Avas dead. I carried my two youngest children, who were sick, and my wife held on 
to my clothes in her great weakness. We had all been sick with measles. Two infants 
had died. She had not left her bed for six weeks till that day, when she stood up a few 
minutes. The naked, painted Indians were dancing the scalp-dance around a large 
fire at a little distance. There seemed no hope for us, and we knew not which way to 
go, but we bent our steps toward Fort Walla- Wall a. A dense, cold fog shut out every 

S. Ex. Doc. 37 3 



32 EAKLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

slar, and the tlarkuess was complete. We could see no trail, aud not even the hand be- 
fore the face. We had to feel ont the trail with our feet. My wife almost I'aiuted, but 
staggered along. Mill Creek, which we had to wade, was high from late rains, aud 
came np to the waist. My wife, in her great weakness, came near washing down, but 
held to my clothes, I bracing myself with a stick, holding a child in one arm. I had 
to cross live times for the children. The water was icy cold aud the air freezing some. 
Staggering along about two miles, Mrs. Osborne fainted and could go no farther, aud 
we hid ourselves in the brush of the Walla- Walla River, not far below T(nn Suckey's 
(a chief) lodges, who was very active at the commencement of the butchery. We 
were thoroughly wet. and the cold fog, like snow, was about us. 

''The cold mud was partially frozen as we crawled, feeling our way, into the dark 
brush. We could see nothing, the darkness was so extreme I spread one wet sheet 
down on the frozen ground ; wife and children crouched ujion it. I covered the other 
over them. I thought they must soon perish, as they were shaking, and their teeth 
rattling terribly with cold. I kneeled down and commended ns to my Maker. The 
day finally dawned, aud we could see Indians riding furiously up and down the trail. 
Sometimes they would come close to the brush, aud our blood would warm and the 
shaking would stop, from fear, for a moment. The day seemed a week. Expected every 
moment my wife would breath her last. Tuesday night felt our way to the trail, and 
staggered along to Sutucks Ninia, (Dry Creek,) which we waded as we did the other 
creek ; and kept on about two miles, when my wife fainted, and could go no farther. 
Crawled into the brush and frozen mud, to shake and suffer on from hunger and cold, 
without sleep. The children, too, wet and cold, called incessantly for food, but the 
shock of groans and yells at first so frightened them that they did not speak loud. 
Wednesday night wile was too weak to stand. I took our second child aud started for 
Walla-Walla ; had to wade the Touchet ; stopped fr('([ueutlj' in the brush from weak- 
ness; had not recovered from measles. Heard a horseman pass and repass, as I lay 
concealed in the willows. Have since learned it was Mr. Spalding. Reached Fort 
Walla- Walla after daylight; begged Mr. McBeau for horses to get my family, for food, 
blankets and clothing, to take to them, and to take care of my child till I could bring 
my family in, should I live to find them alive. Mr. McBean told me I could not bring 
my family to his fort. Mr. Hall had come in on Monday night, but he could not 
have an American in his fort, and he had put him over the Columbia River; that he 
could not let me have horses, or anything for my wife and children, and I must go to 
I'matilla. lusisted on bringing my family to the fort, but he refused ; said he would 
not let us in. I next Ijegged the priests to show pity, as my wife and children must 
perish, and the Indians would undoubtedly kill me, l)ut with no ))etter success. I 
then begged to leave my child, who was now safe in the fort, l)ut they refused. 

"There were many priests in the fort. Mr. McBean gave me breakfast, but 1 saved 
mostof itfor my family. Providentially, Mr. Stanley, an artist, came in from Colville, 
narrowly escaped the Cayuse Indians by telling them he was "Alain," H. B. He let 
me have his two horses, some food he had left from Rev. Eells's and Walker's Mission; 
also a cap, a pair of socks, a shirt and handkerchief, and Mr. McBean furnished an In- 
dian, who proved mostfaithful ; and Thursday night we started back, taking my child, 
but with a sad heart, that I could uot find mercy at the hands of the priests of God. 
The Indian guided me in the thick darkness to where 1 supposed I had left my dear 
wife and children. We could see nothing, and dare not call aloud. Daylight came 
and I was exposed to Indians, but we continued to search till I was about to give it up 
in despair, when the Indian discovered one of the twigs I had broken as a guide in 
coming-out to the trail. Followiugthesehesoon found my wife and children, yet alive. 
I distributed what little food and clothing I had, and we started for the Umatilla, the 
guide leading the way to a lord. But just as were al)ont to cross, a Cayuse came 
upon us. I gave him a piece of tobacco. He told my Indian he had come to kill us 
all. My Indian replied, ' Yes, you had better kill them, you haA'c no scalps now, but 
then you will have five. The sick man's, this woman's, and the three children's. You 
will then be big brave.' By this he shamed the Cayuse, who said 'I will not kill them, 
but they will be killed at Umatilla, and that will do.' He left, and we crossed the 
WalUi-VVaila River, and the guide said, ' Go to the fort.' My wife said ' If 1 am to die, 
I will die at the door of the white man. We will go to the fort, if (iod will save us to 
reach that place.' The Indiau bad to hold my wife before him on the horse. To escape 
the Indians, we had to hide in the brush till dark. We reached the fort late Sunday 
night. I laid my wife down and knocked at the gate. Mr. McBean came, and asked 
who is there. I replied. He said he could not let us in ; we must go to \ 'matilla, or he 
would put us over the river, as he had Mr. Hall. My wife replied, ' she would die at the 
gate, but she would not leave.' He finally opened and took us into a secret room, and 
sent an allowance of food for ns every day. Next day I asked him for blankets for my 
sick wife to lie on. He had nothing. Next day I urged agaiu. He had nothing to 
give, but would sell a blanket out of the store. I told him I had lost everything, and 
had nothing to pay, but if I should live to get to the Willamette, I would pay. He 
consented. But the hip-bones of my dear wife wore through the skin on the hard 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 33^ 

floor. Stickus, the cliief, came in oub day and took the cap from his head and gave it 
to me, and a handkerchief to my child." 

This fort Walla- Walla is one of the " St. Bernards" spoken of so hij^hly by Captain 
Mullan in his valuable report on his military road, where the destitute and weary are 
ever treated kindly ! Strange kindness. TIjc same Captain ^lullen, and some others I 
shall have occasion to notice, by silence ^ irtuall^" condemned the whole policy of Doc- 
tor Whitman, his invaluable labors in lirstopeningthe great emigrant route, and again 
his hazards and sufferiugs in saving it and this great VS'^est to his country, and his un- 
ceasing kindness in giving supplies to the passing emigrants, and his great work among 
the Indians. Not a word in his book about the good man or his many good and great 
works. A few more such religious fanatics in our Army and Navy and Indian Depart- 
ment, iintl it wouhl not be dilricult to get up another St. lUutholomew in our country. 

The sun of the 30th of No veuiber refused to shine on the once beautiful and happy 
valley of the Walla-Walla, now stained with the l)lood (tf God's servants, shed •'• liive 
water round about," and the bloody work was not yetdone. Mr. Kimball, with an arm 
broken, and otherwise badly wounded, remained in the chauiber with the four sick 
children and the two oldest Sagar girls, Catherine and Elizabeth. They tore up a 
sheet, wound up his arm, and bandaged his bleeding body ; but he suffered terribly all 
night, and became frantic for water in the morning; said he would have it if killed in 
the attempt. He crawled out to the river. A friendly Indian saw him and hid him 
in the brush, but, for reasous unknown, about suncbjwn he crawled out and came 
toward his house. Catherine (who had come over Avith the children) says: ''Iheard 
the crack of a gun by my side and turned. Frank Escaloom, an Indian, was taking 
his gun from his face. Laughing, and pointing to the fence, he said: 'See how I 
make theSugapoos (Americans) tumble.' Mi-. Kimball was falling from thefence near 
■ the door, the blood running down the rails. Frank then stejtped a little distanct^, 
took Susan Kimball by the arm, and laughingly said : ' See, I have killed your father, 
and you are to be my wife,' and dragged her away." 

The same evening Mr. Young, coming down with a team, was met over the bill, a mile 
from the station, and shot. Two of the oxen were shot with him. The same afternoon, 

* <Teneral Brouilette, Vicar-General for the Pope of Rome on this coast, arrived I'rora 
the Umatilla at the camp of the murderers, which was close by the station, who kept 
uj) the scalp-dance all night, the screams of our lielpless women, writhing in the 
hands of the unrestrained demons, in jilain hearing. 

But Wednesday a shockiug deeil was comuiitted, that must shudder the heart of every 
American, and forever blacken and ruin the name of General Brouilette as a philan- 
thropist, and cannot butecxually blacken thecharactersof those persons in thiscountry 
and in Washington, connected with the Government, who have taken pains to justify 
the savages and excuse Brouilette. He, the general, told me with his own lips, as the 
history will show: "This morning, alter I baptized the children of the camp, 1 went 
over to see what I could do for the women and the dead bodies.'' Thus the new mi.ssion- 
ary, this priest of God, iu the vestments of God, commenced his mission work in his new 
tield, which he had emphatically gained by American blood, by baptizing those blood- 

* stained children of these bloody savage murderers, the dead bodies yet lying unlmried 
about him. For the last eighteen years I have not ceased to ask the un2)re)udiced what 
effect this baptizingin those circumstances had upon the minds of the Indians. There 
can but oneauswer be giveu. They understood the priest as approving what they had 
done and were doing. After the baptizing of the murderers, and after the bodies had 
been collected, sheets sewed around them by my daughter Eliza and others, and hauled 
by hand iu wagons, put in a pit, and sliglitly covered, the Indians collected around the 
general, and insisted on his going to the doctor's medicines, to select out the poison, 
which it was said had been sent over ))y the fathers of Mrs. Whitman and SpauLling, 
and with which the doctor had been killing them, as he represented. Several deposi- 
tions sustain this declaration. 

Mr. McLaue, secretary to Colonel Gilliam, says: "Soon after our forces left the 
garrison, we met a delegation from the Cayuse camp, headed by Stickus, who said: 
' When we had but one religion, we had peace ; but when another religion come, there 
was trouble. We were told the doctor was poisoning us; most of us didn't believe. 
But tiie Indians killed Dr. Whitman, and after he was dead thechief who told us these 
things came, and we told him to show us the j^oison. He went to the doctor's room, 
' took up several little bottles, then selecting one and holding it said, 'This is the poison 
with which the doctor was killing you. Bury this in a box, or you will all be dead.'" 
Miss Bewley, Catherine Sager, and Eliza Spaulding say that after the bodies were 
buried, the priest, who had been in the Indian camp over night, came into the large 
house where the captives were kept, and the Indians gathered around him and asked 
him to go to the doctor's medicines and find the poison. The priest went over to the 
doctor's house, and followed by multitudes of Indians, but by no white man except 
Joe Stantield. " We trembled lest something should be found and made the pretense 
for killing us all. The Indian women were gathering around us with their dull toma- 
hawks, and we expected every moment thej^ would split our heads open. Joe Stantield 



34 EARLY LABORS OF MLSSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

came out, the Indians followiug" him, and said : ' The Father has found tlie poison ; here 
it is;' holding up a phial which he put into a box with eartli, nailed it up and took 
it away to bury it." And this Brouilette iiubli.slied a pamphlet in New York, in 1848, 
exculpating himself and associates, and tilled it with just such falsehoods as we 
should expect; but, to our utter astonishment, ten years after, it is called for and 
printed by Congress, constituting E^.k. J)oc. No. 38, of Thirty- tifth Congress. 

Sails and Bewley were renioN'ed to tlie large building and commenced to gain slowly. 
The helpless women and girls, bereft of their husbands, fathers, and brothers by the 
cruel tomahawk, stripped of their property, cattle, teams, their money, and even of 
their clothing till tliey had not enough to keep them from shivering, were subjected to 
a fate more terrific, than death itself, and beyond the power of the pen to describe. 
The Indians admitted that in some cases they had to use the knife, their victims being 
so young. I am told by the volunteers that three Indians who reported these acts to 
them the next summer, ratiier boastingly, were missing the next day. Our captive 
women were compelled to cook for large numbers of the savages, every day, who would 
call upon P21iza to know if poison was put in their food, aiul requiring her to eat of it 
first. Robbed of most of her clothing, ex]>osed to the cold and the smell ol' blood while 
sewing sheets around the offensive dead bodies, constant calls from the terrified white 
women and the Intiians, to interpret for them, Eliza sunk down in a few days, and was 
laid almost helpless in the same room with Sails and Bewley. On the eighth day after 
the first butchery, three Indians came into the room and said that the great white 
chief at Umatilla had said that tliey must kill the two sick men to stoj) the dying of ' 
their people. (Hinman and NVliitman testify the great chief was Bishop Blanchette. ) 
They tore off the table-legs and commenced lieating Sails and Bewley, and Avere full 
lialf an hour in killing them — their victims struggling over the floor and around the 
room, the blood and brains flying over my child, who was compelled to hear the 
blows and groans and witness the terrible scene. Miss Bewley attempted to rush 
iu from another room, w4ion she heard the agonies of her dying brother, but the 
women held her back. The bodies were thrown out at the door, and w ere not allowed 
to be buried for three days. 

THE TRAGIC FATE OF THK AMIABLK MISS BEWLEY, FORCED BY THE JESUITS INTO THE 
HANDS OF THE SAVAGES — HER ALMOST MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE— THE SAVAGE 
MORE A HUMAN llEING THAN THE JESUIT — ROMANISM IN OREGON — MISS BEVVLEY'S 
DEPOSITION. 

The next day, while the bi'other of Miss Bewley lay yet unburied at the door, my 
child Eliza, looking out of the door as she lay sick, and seeing an Indian ride up lead- 
a horse, cried out, ''Oh there is Tashe — iny horse; now I know the Indians have 
kille<l my father, for they have got my horse." The Indian came iu, said he was sent 
to take that young woman, pointing to Miss Bewley, over to I'matilla, to be the wife 
of " Five Crows," a Cayuse chief. The horse he brought for her to ride was my own, 
and was Eliza's riding-horse, and recognized by her as soon as she saw it. This horse 
with three others, which I left in the hands of Brouilette when I met him and the 
Indian and fled for life, as tiie history will show, were found iu his hands still, by 
the Nez Perces chiefs, James and Joseph, when I sent over for Eliza and the hor.ses 
after I reached my home. So it seems that the horse that was sent to take ]Miss 
Bewley over to the Umatilla, to be subjected to the brutalities of the savage, was 
furnished by the vicar-general of the Jesuits on this coast, and the same agent who 
is now collecting unsuspecting young girls all through this great West, not for the 
same jjurposes, to be suie now, but for the large and flourishing schools throughout 
the country, of which he is the head. 

But we let the amiable sufferer speak for herself. Her deposition was taken before 
Esiiuire Walling, then of Oregon City, 1848: 

"After shaking with a chill of ague, and while the fever was yet raging and my 
head and bones in great pain, the Indian started with me for the Umatilla in the after- 
noon. I rode Eliza S})aulding'8 horse, which the Indian had brought for me. This led 
U8 to suppose that the Indians had killed Mr. Spaulding, somewhere. I had no choice, 
but had to submit to whatever the Indians directed. Although our fate as women 
and girls, in the hands of the savages who had murdered our husbands and fathers and 
brothers, was worse than death, still, when I took my fellow-sufl'erers by the hand to 
bid them farewell, the Avhite Avomen and children, my heart seemed ready to burst 
vith grief. I fell upon the dead body of my dearest, dearest brother, yet unburied, 
and kissed his cold face all covered with his own blood. Oh that dear face that had 
ever been so precious to me, how^ could 1 leave it ? I begged God to take my breath 
and let my cold body sleep by the side of his. The poor white women and children 
stood weeping very loud. Even the Indian women seemed moved. The Indians 
pulled me gently by the arm and pointed to the horse, and I was obliged tc; leave my 
dear brother lying cold and unburied, to see him no more. I was weeping so hard I 
could not see and could scarcely stand. 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 35 

'^ The women and the ludians helped me along and helped me on the horse. Only 
the day before my brother was killed he told me he wonld soon be able to walk, and 
that he would leave in the night and find help to deliver ns from onr sufferings. I 
told him he was too sick yet, and besides, if he attempted such a thing, the Indians 
wonld kill him. He said he cared nothing for his life, if he could only deliver me from 
my sufferings. The Indians had abused me before his eyes, but ho dared not raise his 
hand even if he had had the strength, and his groans of anguish on my account were 
harder, if jjossible, than my own. He had seen me dragged out by the savages and had 
become almost frantic, and declared he would try to deliver me if he died in the 
attempt. I had noticed ,Jo. Stantield and .Jo. Lewis listening to us, and think they 
overheard us, as word came from the Umatilla to kill my brother apd Mr. Sails, and I 
have always felt the Catholics were the cause. 

" The Indian led my horse, and as I rode away I thought my heart would burst with 
anguish. The idea of leaving my dear brother nnburied; the idea of turning my back 
forever upon white people; to see my mother no more; to be doomed to suffer and 
li\e with the savages! Oh, how I begged God to send help or send death." 

That night this amiableyonng saint lay down upon the prairies with but one blanket; 
the frozen earth, covered with snow, her night pillow ; the dark heavens her curtains, 
her woes only growing darker and thicker at every step. No mother's hand or brother's 
to hold her aching head or stay the (|niveriug flesh that seemed ready to tly off' the 
bones,shakingso terribly with the cold and the ague. The Indian made a ffre, wdiich, 
however, lasted but a short time, and he was soon asleep in his single blanket. But 
what a night for that dear angel; it seemed a month, and yet she dreaded to have it 
end. The snow came down, and the chilling winds blew fiercely. "Has God and nature 
combined with the savages against me f ^o; I will not murmur. I will trust my God. 
He will do right for Jesus" sake." Yes; dear young sister, my fellow-sufferer to some 
extent, on those same cold, dark prairies, your Saviour, once in deeper agony, did hear 
your prayer, and was, even at that dark hour, working your and my deliverance by the 
only arm that could have been found west of the Rocky Mountains to have rescued us 
and onr fellow-prisoners from a sure death or a perpetual captivity among the Indians. 

Although the sufferings of that night were terrific and beyond the power of the pen, 
yet that dear girl could look forward to the dawn as the morning only of a day of fearful 
but accumulating woes. As soon as light dawned, without a moment's sleep, through 
the night irom shivering cold, and without food, our dear victim, too cold or too weak 
to help herself, was helped on the horse, and they started. Thank God, it was Eliza's 
horse and very easy to ride. They reached Five Crows' lodge before noon. He went 
out and met her, and took her carefully in his arms from the horse, and led her into the 
lodge, spread down robes and blankets and laid her upon the bed, and built up a large 
tire and prepared two or three kinds of food and tea; but the terrible fever that fol- 
lowed the long chills, and the pains in ber head and bones, would not allow her to eat. 
After she recovered so as to walk, the chief told her, if she wished, to go over to the 
house of the white men, (Bishop Blanchette and Bronilette.) and at night he would 
come for her. And she went over and wentintothe bishop's room. They had arrived 
at the Umatilla from Fort Walla- Walla two days before the massacre. And the com- 
pany consisted of Bishop Blanchette, General Bronilette, two priests and three French- 
men — seven white persons altogether. The three Frenchmen occupied the kitchen, and 
the other four the sitting-room or office, into which our helpless sister presented her- 
self to the bishop and the priests, begging them that they would protect her and not 
allow the Indian to take her away. The darkness came, and with it the Indian, as she 
expected. He came into the kitchen near the middle door and spoke to Miss Be wley to 
come and go over home with him. He called to her several times, but she remained 
quiet and gave him no answer, and he soon turned away from the door and walked out, 
and then commenced a scene in that room that out-herods all that the bloody savages 
had done thus far, and here again we will let the helpless victim tell her own story: 

"As soon as Five Crows left the door, Bishop Blanchette spoke first, and said: 
' You had better go and be his wife.' I refused; I had rather die. Then Bronilette, 
Avho could speak better English, said, 'You must go, or he will come back and do us 
all an injury.' I arose, terrified at his words and looks, and commenced crying, beg- 
ging him not to send me, and to have pity upon a poor, helpless girl. He said I must 
go, and he called to ,Joe. his servant, to take me over. And the servant came in. I fell 
rrpon my knees before the priest. ' Oh, do pity me — save me, save me; don't give me 
to the Indians, but shoot me.' He rose up and brushed away my hands, and said to 
the servant to take me over. I'then sprang toward the two young ]iriests, holding my 
hands appealingly, but they said nothing and moved not a hand, and the servact,ha]f 
dragging, half carrying me, hurried me away. 1 can never describe the feelings of my 
soul as I cast a last look upon these white men." 

The servant took her over to the Indian's lodge (half a mile distant,) opened the 
door, put her in, and turned back to the house. And now another scene opens in that 
lodge, most emphatically the counterpart of that blood-freezing scene I have related 
in the bishop's room. "As I was pushed into the lodge, the chief told me to sit down on 



36 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIOXARIEis IX OREGON. 

a buffalo robe. A good fire was burning, and no one was in the lodge but the Indian. 
He was silent for «ome time, and iheii turned and said kindly to me, *lf you do not 
■wish to be my wife, go back to the white man's house. I will not trouble you. Take 
your bundle of clothes.'" And she returned immediately to the bishoji's house. 

Well would it hase been had our unfortunates daughter trusted to the humanity of 
the savage, rather than to the religion of the bishop. But instinctively the house of 
the white man was sought as soon as tliis frighteni^d lamb found lierself free from the 
bands of tlie dreadful Indians, and she I'ound the l)isliop'8 house in the thick darkness, 
and sunk down on the lloor in his room. And as they collected around her, she screamed 
and commeuced begging them to save her, supposing she was to be again dragged away. 
But they soon quieted her by preparing a good bed and some food. The next day she 
begged them to send her to Fort \Valla- Walla, for she feared the Indian would be per- 
suaded to come again. She would work for them, or, should she live to reach the set- 
tlements, her friends would pay them any sum. The third, day, at evening, just as she 
feared, the Indian came ay:un, and 8too<l at the same middle cloor and told her to come 
with him. And here again the former soul-sickening events were enacted over. But 
this time the Indian, having learned more of the designs of this spiritual adviser, 
remained to receive his victim. She says: "I was forced out of the room, and the 
Indian took me by the arm and led or dragged me away. And from that time I was 
subject to the Indian. I would return to the bishop every morning. One morning, 
as I was wringing my hands aiul crying, one of tlie young priests s))oke kindly to 
me, telling me to pray to the Virgin. On another morning, as I came in, the other 
young priest laughingly asked me 'how I liked my new husband.' I thought this 
"would break my heart, and cried through the day. About three weelvs after the butch- 
ery, two Xez Perce chiefs. l>y the names of .lames and Red Wolf, came after Mr. Spald- 
ing's horses, which he had left with IJronilette, and brought us the news that Mr. Spald- 
ing had escaped and reached his family alive in the Xez Perce country, and that Mr. 
Caniield had also escaped and readied the same place. And what was to me most 
joyful news, they said efforts were being made to deliver all the captives. Although 
I could see no hope, the bare mention was a great comtbrt to my terrible situation. 

"The next day, while the NezPerces were yet there, word came that Mr. Ogden had 
arrived at Walla- Walla from Vancouver, with men, boats, and goods, to deliver the 
captives from the Indians, and that he had sent for the Cayuses and \\'alla-Wallas to 
come into council. Only those who have been in like fearful circumstances can have 
any idea of my frantic joy. I could not eat or sleep, or sit still, although the chills 
and the fever continued severe. 1 watched every motion of the trees, the birds, and 
the Indians, and every hour seemed a weelc. Three days after the tirst news of Mr. 
Ogden, Mr. Brouilettc called to me in the morning to come out to him. He was on 
his horse to go to Walla-Walla. My heart leaped tor joy with the ho})e that I was to 
be taken with him, Init as I came up his look, as he iiointed his thiger, chilled my 
blood, and he said : 'Look here, if you go to that Indi.in's lodge to-night, stay there; 
don't come to my house again. Stay at one place or the other.' 

"My blood curdled. In an instant I saw my fate was lixed, and not by the Indians; 
my breath almost stopped, and I only replied: ' Bntwhatcan I do? The Indians will 
drag me away.' He replied: ' Remember what I tell you," and putspurs to hismnle, 
and was soon out of sight. I sank upon the ground almost senseless, and lay some 
time, but recovering a little, I begged (iod in mercy to take away my life. The chills 
returned as I lay u[)ou the frozen ground, and it seemed as if thetlesh would shake off 
my bones. The Indian would tind me where I was, and I dreaded the house, but had 
to return to the bishop's room. 

" Tln^ fever and the pains that followed were terrific, and yet the fearful forebodings 
for the future would make me forget these for a moment. I told one of the young 
jjriests what Brouilette had ordered, and begged him to protect me. He said the 
bishfip did not like to ha^ e women al)out his lioust;, but if the Indian came for me I 
wouhl have to go. I asked if they would let nie come back in the morning. He told 
nie to come. When the Indian came in the evening, I tried to kee]) out of his way 
by going from one room to aiu)ther, into the bishop's loom, tlien into the kitchen 
among the men; he followed me, and tried to crowd me out of the door. He put my 
bonnet and shawl on. When his head was turned, I threw these under the bed and 
he did not tind them, but he finally dragged me away without them. 

"But thaidvs, everlasting thanks be toOod. my deliverance came nmst unexpectedly. 
On the 28th of December, in the morning, while I w^as yet at the Five Crows' lodge, an 
Indian rode up leading a horse and handed me a note from Mr. ( )gden, stating the joy- 
ful news that he had finally succeeded in redeeming all the unfortunate captives; that 
he had redeemed me. 1 had nothing to fear and nothing to do but to accompany the 
Indian as fast as I could, comfortably, to Walla-Walla. I could hardly believe my 
eyes. I bowed upon my knees with a grateful heart, and thanked u)y Saviour for his 
great mercy to me. Tlie Five Crows pi'cpared tea and a good breakfast for me, and 
jiut a new blanket and buffalo robe upon the saddle to make it comfortable for me to 
ride and for sleeping at night, and a thick shawl around me, and assisted me on my 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 37 

horse, and bade me goodbye kindly and with much feeling, and gave me food for the 
journey. Again I was riding with a lone Indian over the prairies, but with very dif- 
ferent feelings from those of three weeks before. Indeed, I cannot describe my feel- 
ings. My joy was unspeakable, and yet I might be seized by the hands that had de- 
■ceived me in the hour of greatest jieril. Although I was more fit for the sick-bed than 
a journey on horseback of 55 miles in the winter, yet I found myself urging the horse 
sometimes upon the lope. It was a gentle and easy-going horse. The night was cold, 
with a thick fog. The Indian found a good camping place on the Walla-Walla, and 
soon had a good fire, and replenished it several times through the night, seemingly 
for my benefit. Although I had bedding enough, and the good fire to keep me com- 
fortable, my joy kept me from sleep. At dawn the Indian was up, built a rousing 
fire, and brought in the horses which he had hobbled out, and took great pains to 
prepare my breakfast, with tea in a cup he had with him, and then after he wor- 
shipped, in which I joined most heartily, although I understood but a few of his 
words, he saddled my horse and arranged my robe and blanket and helped me on, and 
we rode oft'; and when we came in sight of the fort, the Indian pointed it out to me, 
and said, ' House,' ' suyapuaiat' — American woman. I thought my heart would jump 
out of my bosom. 

"As we rode up. Governor Ogden and Mr. McBean, with several Catholic priests and 
half-breed women, came out. Mr. Ogden took me gently from the horse, as a father, 
and said, 'Thank God, I have got you safe at last. I had to pay the Indians more 
for you than for all the other captives, and I feared they would never give you up.' 
Mr. McBean provided a good bed for me, and treated me very kindly. They took me 
into Mr. Osborne's room, wbere I found Mrs. Osborne very sick, and her hip bones 
cut through the skin on the tloor. All the captives from Walleiptu were brought in 
that night. Two days alter, Mr. Spalding and family, and Mr. Craig and Canfield, 
were brought in Ijy the Nez I'erces. 

"LORINDA BEWLEY. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 12th day of December, 1848, at Oregon 
Citv, Oregon Territory. 

G. WALLING, 

Justice of the Peace, 
Deposition of John KirAzey. 

On my way to this country, with my family, last fall, I called at Fort ^Valla-Walla 
to exchange my teams and wagon for horses. 

There were at the Ibrt two Roman Catholic priests. 

During my stay of about two days, Mr. McBean, in the presence of my wife, said 
the fathers had ofiered to purchase Dr. Whitman's station, but Dr. Whitman had 
refused to sell. He said they had requested the doctor to fix his own price, an<l they 
would meet it, but the doctor had refused to sell on any conditions. I asked him 
who he meant by the fathers ; he said the holy fathers, the Catholic priests. He said 
the holy fathers were about to commence a mission at the mouth of the Utilla, one in 
the upper part of the Utilla, one near Dr. Whitman's station, if they could not get 
hold of the station, one in several other places which I can not name. 

Thev hired Mr. Marsh, whose tools I brought, to doofi" a room for the priests at the 
fort. 

He said Dr. Whitman had better leave the country immediately, or the Indians 
will kill him; we are determined to have hia sfcaiion. 

He further said, I think Mr. Spalding will also have to leave the country soon. 

As I was about leaving, Mr. McBean said, if you could pass as an Englishman, the 
Indians would not injure you; if they do disturb you, show them the horses and 
the mark, and they will know my horses; show them by signs that you are from the 
fort, and they will let you pass. The Indians noticed the mark on the horses, and 
did not disturb me. 

JOHN KIMZEY. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, at my oflice in Tualatin Plains, Tualatin 
County, this 28th day of August, 1848. 

DAVID T. LENOX, 

Justice of the Peace. 

It is a fact that should be made known to the American peojile, that while the Catho- 
lic missionaries in Oregon were thus baptizing the children of the murdering savages 
while they were butchering American fathers and brothers, were tearing our escaped 
fathers out of their houses, and refusing admittance to our escaped American mothers 
and infants, and handling our helpless young women to the savages to l>e the sport of 
their atrocities, and furnishing the savages war material to destroy the American set- 
tlements on the Pacific shores, our American missionary, Dr. Parker, was furnishing 
protection and safety under the American fiag, at bis own house in China, to Catholic 
priests, to save them from death at the hands of the exasperated Chinese, and with his 



38 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

own Protestant hands smoothed the dying pillow of one of them who expired soon 
after he got him to his house. (See Dr. Parker's report as United States minister to 
China in the documents at Washington.) 

Testimony of Miss Bewletj. 

Questions to Miss Bewley: When did thepriest arrive?— Answer. Wednesday, while 
the bodies were being prepared for the grave. The bodies were collected into the 
boxes on Tuesday evening. 

Q. Did the Indians bury a vial or bottle of the doctor's medicine f — A. They said 
they did. Jo. Stautield madetheboxto bury it in, and the Indians said they buried it. 

Q. Why did they bury \tt — A. They said the priests said it was poison. Stautield 
and Nichols were their interpreters to us. 

Q. How did they obtain this vialf — A. The Indians said the priest found it among 
the doctor's medicine, and showed it to thein, and told them if it broke it would poison 
the whole nation. 

Q. Was there much stir among the Indians about this vialf — A. Yes, a great deal. 

Q. Why did the Indians kill your brother? — A. Edward Telankaikt (chief's son) 
returned from the Umatilla, and told us (after they had killed him) the great chief 
had told them their disease would spread. 

(It will be seen by Iliuman's deposition, an<l by J. B. Whitman's, that by the great 
chief is meant the principal white man at a given place, and that Bishop Blanchette 
was the principal white at Umatilla, at this time.) 

Q. Did the Indians threaten yt)u all and treat you with cruelty from the first, and. 
threaten your lives on Tuesday, the day the priest was there ? — A. Y'es, and frequently 
threatened our lives afterward. 

Q. When were you taken to the Umatilla? — A. Just at night on Tuesday, Decem- 
ber 7, the next week after the first massacre, having shaken with the ague that day; 
slept out that night in the snow storm. 

Q. Whose horses came for you?— A. Eliza Spalding said they belonged to her 
fatlier; this led us to suppose that Mr. Spalding was killed. 

Q. When did yon leave Umatilla?— A. On Monday, (December 27,) before the 
Saturday (January 1, 1848) on which Mi . Spalding and company arrived, and we all 
started the next nay for the lower country. 

Q. Did you learn that the prit-tts mude arrangements to commence missions at Dr. 
Whitman's and Mr. Spalding's?— A. When at Uniaiilla the Fieuchman told me that 
they were making arrangements to locate the pi iests; two at Mr. Spalding'.-, as soon 
as Mr. Spalding got away, and two at the doctor's, and they were going to the 
doctor's nt xt week to build a house. 

Q. Did Dr. Whitman wish to have Jo. Lewis stop at his place?— A, He let him stop 
only because he said he hud no shoes nor clothes and could not go on. The doctor 
furnished Jo. with shoes and shirts ; and got him to drive a team, but he was gone but 
three day s and returned ; but the doctor did not like it. I heard Mrs. Whitman say Jo. 
was making disturbance among the Indians. I heard the doctor say once, "Now we 
shall have trouble, these priests are coming; I think the Indians have given them 
land." Mrs. Whitman said, "It will be a an onder if they do not come and kill us.'' 

Testimony of iJr. Saffrons. 

JESUITS AND HUDSON'S BAY MEN MAKE SAVAGES RELIEVE DR. WHITMAN TO BE A 
DANGEltOUS MAN — FORT WALLA-WAIXA" INTENDED THE AMERICAN FAMILIES AT 
DALLES SHOULD I5K KILLED. 

Question. Where were you when you heard of the massacre, and how did yon know 
it? — Answer. I was stopping at Dalles mission. Mr. and Mrs. Hinman and P. B. Whit- 
man, nephew of Dr. Whitman, missionaries, and \\']Iliam McKinney and wife, emi- 
grants, stopping to winter, constituted the whites. A Frenchman, as express from 
Walla-Walla to Vancouver, had arrived in haste, and dc-ired Mr. Hinman to assist him 
on as all the men at the Fort Walla-Walla had died of measles, and Mr. Hinman had. 
left for Vancouver. Scarcely had they gone when the Indians came in and tild us that 
Dr. Whitman and wife, and all the Ameiicaiis at his station, had been killed by the 
Cayuse; that the Frenchman had told them so. We could not believe it, as no letter 
had arrived from Walla- Walla, and the P'renchman had told us that he did not believe 
that Dr. W. was dead. Some days after an Indian came and said the Cayuse had 
collected at Des Chutes; that they said the Catholic priests had made known to 
them that the doctor was a dangerous medicine-man to have among them; that Mr. 
Mcliean, in charge of Fort Walla-Walla, had said that Dr. Whitman determined to 
have all their spotted horses. 

HENRY SAFRONS. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me tbis 9th day of February, 1849, at Oregon City, 
Oregon Territory. 

GABRIEL WALLIN(J, 

Justice of the Peace. 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 39 

Bishop Blanchetivs letter to Governor Ahernutluj. 

HIS DUPLICITY AND DIRECT FALSEHOOD TO DECEIVE THE WORLD AS TO HIS AND 
BROUILETTe's CRIME TO MISS UEWLEY. 

Umatilla, Decernher 21, 1847. 

Please your Excellency: The Indians, in a moment of despair, have committed 
acts of atrocity. They have murdered Dr. Whitman, his wife, and the Americans who 
lived with him. Mr. Brouilette, vicar-general of Walla-Walla, arrived at Waiilatpu ou 
Tuesday eveuiuii', and therefore the first time heard the painful intelligence. As soon 
as I had been informed of what had happened, I instantly sent for the chiefs, (''Five 
Crows," the chief to whom they had given Miss Bewley,was one,) whose lodges are 
near my house. After having made known to them without delay how much I was 
grieved in consequence of the commission of such an atrocious act, I told them I hoped 
the women and children would be spared till they could be sent to the Willamette. 
They answered, "We i)ity them ; they shall not be harmed ; they shall be taken care of 
as before." I have since had the satisfaction to learn they have been true to their 
word, and they have taken care of these poor people. [It will be seen by MissBewley's 
deposition that this ever- to-be-pitied, amiable young svoman was at this time in that 
bishop's house and had been there from the 9th and ccmtinuedtill the 27th, forced out 
by the bishop himself into the Indian's lodge, who did not, however, at first abuse her, 
but sent her back to the bishop's house, one-half a mile; but the third night, being 
forced out, the Indian dragged her away ; returning in the morning, she was forced 
out every night. She says the Indian would drag me away. She said to Catharine 
Geiger she would hold on to the table till she pulled the skin from her fiugers. And 
yet the bishop, during this time, on 2 1st, six days ^before she is delivered, says to Gov- 
ernor Abernathy, "They have taken care of these poor ])eople." Here is a direct false- 
hood, aud to cover up the most brutal crime upon a helpless young woman ever com- 
mitted. The rest of the letter shows who had contnd over the Indians to make war 
or peace.] I was enabled to make new efforts not only to save the women and children, 
but also the Rev. H. H. Spalding and his family, and the Americans at his station, 
[after the chief he had designated to kill me had declined and the party he sent there 
to butcherMrs. Spalding and brother had been defeated by the Xez Perces.] That the 
tragedy of the 29tli had occurred from an anxious desire of self defense; that it was 
the report made against the doctor that led them to commit this act. Your excellency 
will have to judge of the Aalue of this document, [purporting to be the speeches of 
the Cayuse chiefs, but manifestly made up by the priests,] which I have the honor to 
forward to you by request. Nevertheless, without having the least intention to influ- 
ence you one way or the other, I feel myself obliged to tell you that by going to war 
with theCayusesyou will have, tindoubtedly, all the Indians of this country against 
you. Would it be to the interest of a young colony to expose herself? But that you 
will have to decide. 

Receive the assurance of the highest consideration with which I am your excel- 
lencv's very humble and most obedient servant. 

BLANCHETTE, 
Bisho}) of JValla Walla. 

His Excellency George Abernathy, 

Governor of Territory of Oregon, 

JJepositions of Wilcox, Harsh, and Hinman. 

The night after Mr. Kimzey left the fort, he overtook me at the mouth of the 
Utilla, and camped with me. He appeared much concerned al)out what he had 
learned at the fort. He told me much about what Mr. McBean said about the Cath- 
olic priests trying to buy the Doctor's station. Among other things, I remember 
Mr. Kimsey said, tnat ilr. McBean said, that if the Doctor does not leave the Indians 
will kill him, and, says Mr. Kimsey, I believe they will. I remarked, the Catholics 
have not got that station vet. 

F. S. WILCOX. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me, at my office in Tualatin Plains, Tualatin 
County, the 28th dav of August, 1848. 

DAVID T. LENOX, 

Justice of the Peace. 

These men moved on with the emigration of that fall, but liefore they reached the 
Willamette, the news of the Waiilatpu tragedy overtook them. 

Mr. Marsh, son of the Mr. Marsh who was killed, testifies as follows: "I left my 
father and little sister at Dr. Whitman's mission two weeks before the massacre, 
and went down to Walla Walla and got work, and, while there, I heard Mr. McBean 



40 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 



say in the presence of the priest, ' Doctor Whitman and Mr. Spalding had better 
leave or the Indians will kill them, for the fathers will hare those stations."' 

LUCIUS MARSH. 

Sworn toandsub;nitted before meat my office in Tualatin Plains, Tualatin Connty, 
this 28th day of August, 1848. 

DAVID T. LENOX, 

Justice of the Peace. 

Mr. IIinman,w-ho had charge of our mission station at the Dalles, with Perri Whit" 
man, nephew of Doctor Whitman, as interpreter, testifies: "On the 3d of December) 
1847, after breakfast, the Indians came in and said a Frenchman was down at the river • 
I told them to call him up. He came and sat down to breakfast. I asked, * What news 
from above f 'All the men are dead at Walla- Walla except Mr. McBeau and myself, 
and 1 am in a great hurry to get to V'ancouver, to have other men come up. Can you 
help me to a canoe and Indians? Mr. iSIcBeau wished you would.' 'What killed theuif 
* The measles.' ' Have yon beard from Dr. \\'liitman ?' ' Yes ; I heard lie wns dead.' 
■'Whenf ' Four weeks ago; but I don't believe it.' "Well, I have to go down to Van- 
couver, and will go down now.' And as soon as I could get ready we started, in my 
«anoe, with Indians. But on reaching Cape Horn the wind stopped us, and I made 
a canii> and lay down; but I noticed the Frenchman was much agitated; he would 
■walk up and dowu tlie river, and come and look earnestly at me, and go away, and 
come back again. Finally he came nj), and fixing his eyes ui)on me exclaimed, ' Very 
bad man, me, Mr. Hiumaii. Big lie I tell you^no uian dead at Walla-Walla; but 
Dr. Whituuin bedeail; all the Americans at Doctor's dead; Indians have killed them; 
I see them with my eyes, the day before I start; I see Mrs. Whitman dead; Indians 
got all woineu and children prisoners. I take letter to A'ancouver forthe company to 
eouie quick and get all American women and children before Indian he kill tlieui.' Mr. 
Hiuman said,' Why did you not tell me at home ? Now the Indians have prol)ably come 
dowu and killed my family.' 'Very bad man, Mr. Hiuman; but the priests tell me not to 
tell you and Americans at Dalles. If I tell you they no pardon my sins ; but I have to 
tell you ; too much terror here' — putting his hand to his breast. Mr. Hiuman knew 
not whether to turnback to save his family, or to push ahead to give the company the 
news and the opportunity to send up the sooner ; but he pushed on, reached Vaucouver, 
■went into Mr. Ogden's office, and delivered the letters and reported the awful news. 
'Just what I expected,' said Mr. Ogden, ' when those eight priests went up a few weeks 
ago.' The letters being directed to Mr. Douglass, they all walked into his office, and, 
throwing down the letters, Mr. Ogden said, ' There,seewhat a war in religion has done. 
The good doctor is dead. I knew there would be trouble when tiiose priests went up.' 
'Tut, tut, Mr. Ogden, don't be too hasty,' said Mr. Douglass, and opened the letters and 
read: 'Dr. Whitman is killed; Mrs. Whitman is killed; Indians are after Spalding, 
&c., &c., and moreover parties are fitting out; one to go to the mill, one to go to the 
Spokane mission to kill all at those stations; and to go to Clear Water; and one to 
g — my God, Hiuman, why are you here ? — to the Dalles.' " " Sure enough," said Mr. 
Hinman. " Why was that Frenchman forbid to tell me; and I only heard of it just 
up here at Cape Horn.'" The tables were now turned upon Mj-. Douglass, who replied: 
"You must remember that man was in trying circumstances." Mr. Douglass tran- 
scribed that letter to Governor Abernathy for the "Oregon Spectator,"' but that sen- 
tence was leftout, and but for Mr. Hinman's providential presence the world would not 
have known that the man who was bearing a letter l)y the Dalles, containing a declara- 
tion that a party ofsavage murderers was to start to kill the families at that place, was 
forbidden to warn them of their danger on pain of not ha\ ing his sins pardoned; and 
when asked by Mr. Hiuman about tlae doctor, said he did not believe he was dead, 
but he was the man sent out to look for horses, attracted by a crowd about the doctor"s, 
who rode there on Tuesday and saw the dead bodies lying about; saw the doctor's 
body and Mrs. Whituian's and returned to Walla-Walla that evening and started the 
next morning for ^ ancouver with the letters. I*. B. Whitman says, in his depositiim 
before Esquire Purdy, of Salem: "Abouttwenty minutes after Mr. Hinman and the 
Frenchman had left for Vancouver, a crowd of Indians came into the room and sat 
down silently for some time, and then exclaimed, "Why are you not crying?" "Why?"' 
"Because your father and mother are dead ; all the Americans are dead ; the Caynse have 
killed them.'" "How do you know ?" "The Frenchmen told us that he saw them lying 
dead about the doctor's house just before he started; and he has gone to Husushnihai 
( Whitehead's Vancouver) for them to send up men and goods to purchase the many cap- 
tive women and children." "That can not be," I replied; "the Frenchman told us that 
he had not seen the doctor, my uncle, for two weeks, and did not believe he was dead; 
but that all the meu atthe fort except himselfand Mr. McBean weredead ; that he'was 
going to Vancouver for more n:en to man the post. Besides, we have received no let- 
ters from Walla-Walla ; Imt if my uncle and the Americans at his place had been 
killed, we surely would have received letters from Mr. McBean or the priests." There 
were six Americans at the Dalles, viz: Mr. and Mrs. Hinman (missionaries), Mr. and 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 41 

Mrs. McKinuey, (emigrants,) P. B. Whitman, and Doctor Saifrdns. As they bad re- 
ceived no intimation from tbe Freuchniau, wlio was direct from Walla- Walla, and had 
received no letters from that ])ost, vrhich they certainly would, had the doctor and the 
emigrants been killed, as represented by the Indians, they could not believe for a mo- 
ment the report of the Indians. But still the Indians about the station became more 
and more excited from day to day, and hnally took their women and eftects to the 
mountains; and the day before ilr. Hinman's return, several painted, naked Cayuse 
showed themselves in the vicinity of the station. 

It is a question of vital importance to American Protestants, not of that day only, 
but of the present day, why that Frenchman was ordered not to let Americans at the 
Dalles know their danger; why he was threatened with that most fearful of all pun- 
ishments, more than lines or imprisonment, to deter him from telling them. Why 
did not Mr. McBean or the priests write by that messenger to the Dalles, when they 
knew a party of the murderers was soon to start to kill them ? Why was the French- 
man told to obtain Mr. Hinman to go on with him, if possible, thus leaving his family 
more exposed / 

Questions to Mr. Hinman: Did you ever hear Dr. Whitman express fears concern- 
ing influence which Catholics were exerting among the Indians? 

Hinman's answer : I have heard him say several times that he had no fears but that 
the mission would prosper only from the Catholic influence. 

Q. Do you know anything of the Catholic Jauder'/ — A. I saw one in the hands of 
the Indians at the Dalles, and heard them speak of others. The object of this paint- 
ing was to represent Protestants leading Indians to hell, and Catholics leading In- 
dians to heaven. 

Q. Did you ever hear the Indians say they had been told by Catholics and French- 
men that American missionaries were causing them to die? — A. Yes, very often. 

Q. Who would you understand by the term "great chief," as used by the Indians ? — 
A. The principal white nian among them. 

Q. Who was the principal white man at Umatilla at the time of Whitman's ma;s- 
sacre? — A. Bishop Blanchette. 

Q. How did Dr, Whitman regard the Cayuse as to their readiness to receiv'e instruc- 
tions? — A. The last time I saw him, which was a few weeks before the butchery, he 
was greatly encouraged. 

Q. Did the Krenchman tell you that he saw the dead bodies of Dr. and Mrs. Whit- 
man? — A. He said he was out on Tuesday looking after the horses of the j^ost; saw 
a great multitude of tbe Indians about the doctor's house ; rode there ; saw the bodies 
of Dr. and 31rs. Whitman and others lying about. The Indians told him to alight and 
not be afraid. He saw the doctor and John lying in the house; ]\irs. Whitman, Mr. 
Rodgers and Francis lying in the mud near the kitchen door; others at a little dis- 
tance. Crows were upon them ; they were badly cut to nieces. 

ALANSON HINMAN. 

Subscribed and swurn to before me this 9th day of April, 1849. 

JOST .1. HEMBREE, 
Justice of the Peace in and for the county of Yamhill, 0. T. 

AMERICAN CONGRESS vs. PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 

WITNESS FOR THE DEFENSE, NO. 2 — ^VHAT THE PEOPLE OF OREGON AND WASHINGTON 
THINK OF EXECUTIVE DOCUMENT NO. 38. 

To the hoiiorahJc the Senate and Houseof Representatives of the Congress of the United States: 
The memorial of the undersigned, Henry H. Spalding, of the State of Oregon, late 
missionary of the American Boardof Commissioners of I'V) reign Missions to the Indians, 
in the former Territory of Oregon, respectfully I'epresents : 

That Marcus Whitman, M. 1)., a citizen of the United States, and a native of the 
State of New York, did, in 1836, by ofiticial permit from the War Department of the 
United States, proceed to the Paciflc shores, then almost wholly unknown to our jieo- 
ple and totally unappreciated, and ostensibly in the joint occupancy of the United 
States and Great Britain, but really under the exclusive control of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, a British monopoly, goveined by a board of directors in London, with 55 
sworn officers in the Territory, and 515 articled men, and over 800 half-breeds and all 
the Indian tribes under their control, with a line of well-established and strongly 
fortified posts extending from the Paciflc to the Atlantic shores, and having com- 
plete control of the Paciflc coast for over 2,000 miles, deriving a yearly revenue of 
over $40,000, and who had succeeded by their power and the aid of the savages in 
forcing the last American trader from the country. 

And that said Dr. Whitman, by order of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, established an American mission in the valley of the Walla-Walla, in 
said Territory of Oregon, and by his travels as missionary made himself acquainted 



42 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

with the valiie of the country, both for settlement and for its mineral wealth; and 
haA'ing' demonstrated tlie problem that wagons and iamilies conld cross the monntaius 
and the continent by l)ringing his wagons through in 183(3. 

And that said Whitman, by his sleepless vigilance, became convinced that a deeji- 
laid plan was about culminating to secure this rich country of Oregon Territory to 
Great Britain from misrepresentations on the part of Great Britain and for want of 
information as to tlie cliaracter and value of the country on the part of the Govern- 
ment of the United States. 

And that to prevent the sale and transfer of said Territory, and the conse(£uent loss 
to the United States of this great Northwest and its valuable seaboard, and the great 
commercial considerations therewith, said Whit\n;in did, in the dead of winter, at his 
own expense, and without asking or expecting a dollar from any source, cross the con- 
tinent, amid the snows of the Rocky Mountains and the bleakness of the intervening 
plains, inhabited by hostile savages, suttering severe hardships and perils from being 
compelled to swim broad, ra])id, and ice-lloating rivers, and to wander lost in the ter- 
rific snow-storms, subsisting on mule and dug meat, and reached the city of Washing- 
ton not an hour too soon, confronting the Hritisli agents Ashlnirton, Fox, and Simp- 
son, who, there is evidence to show, in a short time would have consununated their 
plans, and secured a part, if not all, of our territory west of the mountains to Great 
Britain, and by his own personal knowledge disproving their allegations, anil by com- 
municating to President Tyler important information concerning the country, and the 
fact that he had taken his wagons and mission families through years liefore, and that 
he )iroposed taking back a wagon-train of emigrants that season, did thereby prevent 
the sale and loss of this our rich Pacific domain to the people of the United States. 

And that said Whitman did then return to Oregon Territory and conduct the first 
wagon-train of 1,000 souls to the Columbia River, thereby greatly increasing Ameri- 
can inrtuence, and completely breaking the infiuence of the British monopoly and 
adding immensely to the courage and wealth of the little American settlement, and 
continued, at his mission station in the Walla-Walla Valley, to furnish needed sup- 
plies to the yearly emigrants, and a resort for them to rest antrrecruit, until he and 
his heroic wife and her equally heroic associate, Mrs. Spalding, together with seven- 
teen other emigrants who had stopped to winter, were brutally destroyed in 1847 by 
the Indians, and the American settlements in Middle Oregon broken up, and a bloody 
war to exterminate the Americans on the Pacific coast coumienced. 

And that there is abundant proof to show that the said Whitman massacre, and the 
long and expensive wars that followed, were commenced by the above-said British 
monopoly for the purpose of breaking up the American settlements and of regaining 
the territory, and that the.v were especially chagrined against the said Whitman as 
being the ])rincipal agent in disappointing their schemes. 

And said proof consists in— 

1. Apamj)hlet ])ublished by an agent from Enrope, connected with the Hudson's Bay 
Company, who was on the ground during the bloody tragedy, and walked unharmed 
amid the slaughter, which lasted eight days, encouraging the savages, in which he says, 
"The massacre of Waiilatpu has not been committed by the Indians in hatred of the 
heretics. If Americ^ans only have been killed, it is because the war has been declared 
by the Indians against the Americans only, and not against foreigners; and it was in 
their quality as American citizens and not as Protestants that the Indians killed them." 

2. The said agent, with his associates and officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
turned out the escaped Americans from their posts, one of wliom was murdered by 
the Indians, and they also refused admittance to mothers and their infants during 
the slaughter, and with their own hands, lor fifteen nights, handed one of our Amer- 
ican girls to the savages, to be the sport of their atrocities. 

.3. One of the overland companions of this agent, from Canada, gave the signal for 
the tomahawk to commence, aiul shot Mrs. Wliitman with his own hand. 

4. Defying the infant provisional government, and remaining in the hostile coun- 
try furnishing onr enemies with, war material after that country was closed against 
all whites. 

5. Attempting to furnish the combined hostiles from the English post, at Fort Van- 
couver, in the Hudson's Bay Com))any's boats, with Hudson's Bay men in charge of 
one of their agents, with over four thousand pounds of powder and ball, and three 
cases of guns, which were t.iken from them at Fort Wascopum by Lieutenant Rogers, 
only fifteen miles sliort of the hostile camp, waiting at the river Hes Chutes, who 
boasted three days before that such ammunition was coming up by such agents to 
them, ;iud that when they obtained it thej- would fall upon the American settlements 
and destroy them, and take their women and cattle and herds. 

6. The sudden building of fortifications at Fort Vancouver. 

7. The significant boast of Sir George Sim])son, only n few months before this 
bloody work commenced, i)ublished in his Voyage Around the World, viz: "I defy 
the American Congress to establish their Atlantic tariff in the Pacific ports.'' 

It is not, therefore, too much to say that Dr. Marcus Whitman and those heroic 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 43 

women lost their lives iu consequence of their services aforesaid, which they so heroic- 
ally and lavishly gave to their country and a pure Christianity. 

And that a document has been published by order of Congress, entitled Executive 
Document No. 38, of the TJjirty-fifth Congress, (doubtless through one of those inad- 
vertencies which sometimes occur in the proceedings of deliberative bodies,) which 
document casts severe retiections upon the memory of said Dr. Whitman and his com- 
patriots, as also upon the early Protestant missions in Oregon, attempting to show that 
they rendered no benefit to the country, but "set a Itad example to the races among 
whom they chose to dwell," and were the real causes of the massacre and of the war. 

In connection with this memorial, the undersigned respectfully invites attention 
to the following documents bearing on the case, viz: 

Document A. Memorial to Governor Ballard, signed by E. R. Geary, and some 700 
citizens of Oregon, and Elwood Evans and others, of Washington Territory. 

Document B. Resolutions of the Presbyterian Church, (Old School,) signed by A. 
L. Lindsley, moderator, and E. E. Geary, stated clerk. 

Document C. Resolut'ons of the Oregon Presbytery of the Cumberland Presby- 
terian Church, W. R. Bishop, moderator; C. Wooley, stated clerk. 

Document D. Resolutions of Oregon United Presbyterian Church, Jeremiah Dick, 
moderator; T. S. Kenilal, stated clerk. 

Document E. Resolutions of the Oregon Association of the Congregational Church, 
G. II. Atkinson, moderator; C. N. Terry, clerk. 

Document F. Resolutions of the Oregon Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Bishop Kingsley, moderator; C. C. Strattou, clerk. 

Document G. Resolutions of the Pleasant Bute Baptist Church, State of Oregon, 
J. W. Warmouth, moderator; H. J. C. Averill, clerk. 

Document H. Resolutions of the Oregon lirotherhood of the Christian Church, J. 
M. Harris, moderator; W. H. Rowland, clerk. 

Document 1. Resolutions of the Steuben Presbytery, Presbyterian Church, New 
York, D. Henry Palmer, J. H. Hotehkiss, O. F. Marshall, committee. 

Document J. Memorial of the citizens of Steuben County, Alleghany County, and 
Chemung County, New York. Signed by O. F. Marshall, George Edwards, J. W, 
Hoffman, and others. 

Document K. Memorial of the citizens of Oberlin, Ohio, signed by President Fair- 
child, and others. 

Now, therefore, in view of the great wrong and injustice done; to the cause of Prot- 
estant missitms, on the ground, to the memory of martyrs whose services there were 
of so signal advantage to the country as such, as well as to the cause of religion, and 
the undersigned personally, the present Congress is respectfully and earnestly peti- 
tioned so far to review the action of the Twenty-lifth Congress, as to issue, in docu- 
mentary form, a suitable vindication of the parties mentioned. Your honorable body 
is respectfully but earnestly requested to publish, in a like Congressional document, 
the reply or manifesto herewith transmitted. 

And your memorialist feels the utmost assurance that the sacred regard for the truth 
of history ever entertained, and the high value ever placed upon unselfish patriotism 
by your honorable body, will lead you at once to see both the justice and the patriot- 
ism of his humble praver. 

HENRY PI. SPALDING, 

Of Over/ on. 

We hope Congress will appoint a comiuittee of investigation, and if faithful and 
patriotic men and women have been publicly wronged, let them be righted as pub- 
licly before the nation. — Neto York Observer, October, 1867. 

Official slander of martyred missionaries attempted. — Dayton (Ohio) Telescope, Jan- 
uary, 1870. 

PiiELPS, Dodge & Co., 
(Cliff street, between .John and Fulton,) 

New York, December 29, 1870. 
My Dear Sir: This will introduce the Rev. H. H. Spalding, long a missionary of 
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Oregon, who visits 
Washington by the advice of many friends to see if the great wrong done to the mem- 
ory of his companion in the mission, Rev. Dr. Whitman, cannot be rectified by Congress. 
I have known of the facts for many years, and the inclosed, if you can take time 
to look them over, will deejjly interest you, and show you how our Government has, 
no doubt iguorautly, done great injustice to one who deserved the highest com- 
mendation for what he had done for the nation. 

I beg you to fake a little time in looking into this matter, and consulting with 
other friends of Protestant religion, to see if we cannot wipe out this stain. 
Very respectfully, yours, 

W. E. DODGE. 
Hon. James G. Blaine, 

Speaker United States House of Eepresentatives, IVashington, D. C, 



44 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

PiiiLADELrniA, Januarij 5, 1871. 

I fullv concur in the sentiments and wishes of Hon. W. E. Dodge. 

JAY COOKE. 

A like circular was addressed by the eminent patriots to Senators Colfax, Patterson, 
Pomeroy, Buckingham, and Wilson ; to Cattell, Armstrong, and Maynard, of the 
House of Representatives. 

Office of the Oregon Central Railroad Company, 

Salem, Xovemher 8, 1869. 
Dear Sir: Your favor of 29th ultimo came duly to hand per last mail; contents 
noted. I assure you I will gladly do what I can to aid in rendering justice to those 
noble-minded men and women, (martyrs to truth and a pure Christianity,) which our 
too lenient, and in this instance criminally careless. Government permitted itself to 
abuse in such unscrupulous manner as was done by the publication, authoritatively, 
of Ex. Doc. ;}8, referred to in yours. 
Very truly, yours, 

.J. R. MOORES. 
James Blakely, Es<]., 

Chairman of Committee. 

Document K. 

Whereas tlie United States Congress published in Executive Document No. 38, 1859, 
an ex parte statement of what is known as the Whitman massacre, and of the causes 
that led to it, which reflects severely upon the devoted missionaries of the American 
Board then laboring on the Pacific shores, and does great injustice to those faithful 
martyrs to a pure Christianity : 

Therefore resolved, That we, citizens of Oberliu, unite with the thousands of patri- 
otic brethren on the Pacitic slopes in respectfully aud earnestly petitioning Congress 
to take the steps requisite to correct the wrong ito the memory of the patriotic dead, 
aud extend justice to the living. 

JAS. H. FAIRCHILD, 

President. 
JOHN M. ELLIS, 
Professor of InieUectual Philosophy. 
JUDSON SMITH, 
Professor of Ecclesiastical History. 

C. H. CHURCHILL, 

Professor «/ Mathematics^ 
G. W. STEELE, 

Professor of Music. 
S. F. PORTER, 

Conqrcrjdiional Minister. 
R. THEO. CROSS, 
Principal of Preparatory Department. 
G. W. SHURTLEFF, 

Profe><xoy of Latin. 
DUDLEY ALLEN, M. D. 
JOHN MORGAN, 
Professor of Biblical Literature. 

D. P. REAMER. 
HIRAM HULBURD. 

E. J. GOODRICH. 
J. T. SIDDALL. 

Whereas we, citizens of Almond, N. Y., having listened with great interest for two- 
evenings to the statements of the Rev. H. H. Spalding, relative to his missionary 
journey, in company with Dr. M. Whitman, his own and the doctor's heroic wife, 
across the Rocky Mountains in 1836, the establishment of a mission among the Nez 
Perces Indiaus ; the success attending their etforts in reducing the language to writing ; 
in establishing schools and churches; and in introducing among that tribe many of 
the arts and comforts of civilization; the uncompensated labors of Dr. Whitman in 
encountering the perilsof the journey in mid-winter across the continent to Washing- 
ton, and making such representations to the Government as to secure to the United 
States the States and Territories on the Pacific Coast ; tlie bloody drama by which the_ 
mission was broken up — the barbarous savages being spurred on by the willful lies of 
Catholic emissaries ; and the passage by the Thirty-fifth Congress of Ex. Doc. No. 38, 
by which the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions- 



EARLY LABORS OF Mlh^SIONARIES IN OREGON. 45 

were driven from the field, and have never been permitted to return ; and whereas all 
tlieseallegatiousaresupportedby documentary evidenceandunimpeachable testimony : 
Therefore, 

1. Resolved, That we see the wonder-working hand of Providence in thus opening 
the way for the establishment of amission among the Indian tribes bej'ondtbe Rocky 
Mountains, and the raising up and (^lalifying missionaries, lilce Dr, Whitman and. 
Eev. Mr. Spalding, and their Christian wives, for this work. 

2. That in our j udgment a grievous wrong has been done Dr. Whitman and his mar- 
tyred associates, in the ])assage by the Thirty-fifth Congress of Ex. L)oc. No. 38; and 
that, in common with our patriotic fellow-citizens of the Pacific coast, we unite in 
asking Congress to rectify this wrong, in part, at least, by adoi^ting and publishing a 
document which shall contain an answer to the above-named clocument; ;ind we feel 
the utmost assurance that the sacred regard for the truth of historj' ever entertained 
by your honorable body, and the high name ever placed by you ujion unselfish patriot- 
ism, will lead you at once to see both the justice and patriotism of our request. 

E. W. EWERS. A. SPRAGIJE. 

M. M. HENRY. H. W. CRANDALL. 

THEO. H. RUEDIGER. JONAS G. PRENTISS. 

JAMES GO<JDKICH. W]\I. RICHARDSON. 

C. S. HALL. CASS RICHARDSON. 

IRA CUTLER. ISAAC G. OGDEN. 
C. CURTIS. 



MANIFESTO: OR A REPLY TO EXECUTIVE DOCUMENT NO. 38 OF THE 
THIRTY- FIFTH CONGRESS. 

NKWBURYroRT, M.'vss., January 6, 1871. 

Rev. and Dear Sir : Your continued life and your return to the Atlantic slope call 
for renewed gratitude from Christian hearts. * » « ^ ^ 

We give thanks for jour existence, for what God has wrought in you and done by 
you; and even more than in former years we glorify God in you. 

Our nation owes you a debt it can never pay. Our American Israel — the members 
of Christ's body, in our land— are under obligations to you that may be understood 
better in Heaven than on earth. The pioneer missionaries on the Pacific slope are to 
be honored forever for being such faithful servants of Ziou's King, whose kingdom 
shall stand forever. How great the blessing to be called of God and to be girded for 
the work of laying the foundation for many generations. Saved l)y the blood and 
righteousness of Christ, you will soon unite with the spirits of the just made perfect 
in praising God for what He has wrought through human agency in our world, and 
you will know the bliss of enduring gratitude for what, by His grace, He has aided 
you to accomplish for the advancement of His kingdom. 
Your sister in Christ, 

Z. 13. BANISTER. 

Mr. H. H. Spalding. 

[From the Elmira (K. Y.) Herald, December 5, 1870.] 
A remarkable visitor. 

The Rev. Henry H. Spalding, on bis way to Washington from Oregon, is to spend 
to-day or to-morrow in this city, and will address the people in one or more of the 
churches. His history is one of sti'iking interest. With the Rev. Marcus Whitman, 
he undertook a mission to the Indians of Oregon as long ago as 1836. Their wives 
were the first white women who crossed the Rocky Mountains, and thus made it 
evident that families could traverse the plains to the Pacific coast. Dr. Whitman 
afterwardsreturned on horseback, in mid-winter, tocommuuicate with Daniel Weljster, 
then Secretary of State, and in treaty with Great Britain lor the northwest territory, 
and demonstrated to him and President Tyler the accessibility and desirableness of 
that i-ountry to our Republic, so that this missiouary company may be credited with 
securing that vast and valuable portion of our country to this Government, instead of 
sufieriug it to fall under British rule. 

In 1847 a terril)le uprising of Indians occurred, resulting in breaking up all American 
settlements in Eastern Oregon, and the massacre of nearly the entire missionary band, 
who had there labored for eleven years in their self-denying enterprise. 

Mr. Spalding is the only survivor of the baud, his wife having perished in conse- 
quence. The history of his escape is a recital of fearful interest. 
, After thirty-four years he now returns eastward to lay before Congress important 
facts connected with the early history of Oregon, and the fate of these communities, 
by Indian barbarity and Jesuit intrigue. 



46 EARLY LABORS OF MLSSION ARIES IN OREGON. 

Rarely, in the auiifils of bnmau progress, does it fall to the lot of any man, as it has 
to this venerable pioneer, to go forth on foot and horseback and raft, by help of com- 
pass and axe, laalving his way across an unexplored continent, and having laid the 
foundations of States in the untrodden wilderness, to return a third of a century 
afterward over the whole distance by the luxury of the railway car, the old perilous 
journey of six months accomplished in six days. 

Though worn and enfeebled in his long service and terrific sufferings, the narrative 
of this veteran and martyr missionary is one of intense interest to all who listen to 
it, well calculated to inspire the deepest respect for those apostolic men and women 
of all ages, our own not excepted, who have led the hosts of faith in the conquest of 
the world. 

It adds to the interest that would naturally be felt in the presence of such a man 
in our community that the original company of missionaries was made up in Southern 
New York. Rev. Mr. Spalding and Mrs. Whitman w^ere from Plattsburg, Dr. Whitman 
from Wheeler, and Mrs. Spalding from Holland Patent. Mr. Spalding was ordained 
at Big Flatts. 

Hoiiorahlc Mr. Allison's definition of an executive dovitment. 

We lincl in our executive documents here official communications from the oliSeers 
of the Government which can alone speak ofticially upon the subject. (See General 
Lane's speech in the HoTise of Representatives, April 2, 1856.) 

Executive documents, then, are regarded and treated by Congress as official testi- 
mony. Executive documents, then, No. 38, of Thirty-fifth Congress, and No. 1, 
volume 2, of Thirty-seventh Congress, will be held as official testimony against the 
Protestant Church in the United States. 



VI.— WHO INSTIGATED THE INDIANS TO MURDER THE MISSIONARIES 

AND AMERICANS? 

IMPORTANT TESTIMONY. 

Question. And further, from your acquaintance with Doctor and Mrs. Whitman, 
and with Mr. and Mrs. Spalding and from your knowledge of the results of their 
labors among the Indians, and the results and influence, both of Protestantism and 
of Roman and British influence in Oregon, can you not answer decidedly in the 
negative the following questions, which are mostly framed from verbatim extracts 
from said document, to-wit: 

Has the American Congress the least shadow in truth to represent, as they do in 
said document, on page three, that the taking of the Indians' land by the mission- 
aries (Whitman and Spalding) was one of the alleged causes of the murder of Dr. 
AVhitman and i'amily ? 

Answer. I believe and know this to be false. 

GEORGE ABERNATHY. 

The most wicked falsehood ever uttered. 

A. HINMAN. 

Whitman and Spalding took no lands, only the stations they occupied and improved, 
as the Indians reciuested them, and upon which they located them on arriving in the 
country in answer to a call from the Indians, and as authorized by a written permit 
bv the War Denartmeut at Washington, dated March 1, 1836. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

In answering this question it is proper for me to state that Dr. Whitman went to 
Washington in the winter of 1842-43 to prevent, if possible, the loss of Oregon to the 
United States ; and while gone I was in charge of his station among the Cayuse Indians, 
who informed me on many occasions that the priests and half-breeds were urgent that 
they should drive Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman out of the country, so that tliey (the 
priests) could occupy the country and the places of Whitman and Spalding. I asked 
them on many dili'erent occasions if they wanted Messrs. Spalding and Whitman to 
leave their country after they had been there so long and taught them so much, both 
in religion and in civilization, and cultivating the soil. A. c. They answered, "Oh, no; 
it is the priests that are continually desiring us to drive them away." 

And again, in 1846 the priests became very urgent and the Catholic Indians Itecame 
so noisj' about the matter that the tribe held a great council about the matter. 
Doctor Whitman made them a .speech. He told them his locks were getting gray. 
He had spent his best days in trying to do them good, but if they wished him to 
leave he would be ready to leave in two weeks. 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 47 

After three hours of conference they made their reply as follows: 

"When you tirst came to our country we knew nothing about cultivating the land 

and making a living in that way. We had no cattle, hogs, plows, or hoes. Now we 

have all these that you have assisted us to procure and taught us to use. Before you 

came we were always hungry in the winter; now we have plenty to eat and to spare. 

Formerly we knew hut little of God ; now we worship him everj^ day in our families. 

After receiving so much we do not wish you to leave us but to stay with us as long 

as you live, and occupy the place that you now occupy." 

I say most emphatically that the Jesuit priests then in this country were the true 

instigators of the murder of Doctor Whitman and those with him, and the Roman 

Catholic Indians the principal actors. 

WM. GEIGER, Jk. 

That couutr.N' would have lieen much settled before now but for the efforts made 
by the lamented Doctor Whitman on behalf of the Cayuses to prevent it. His lips 
are now sealed in death; massacred by the bloody hands of those for whom he so 
long and so earnestly labored. We see no reason now why the Cayuse country 
shonkl not l)e oi)en to the settlement of the white man. — Judge Wait, editor of Oref/on 
Spectator, Jul/i 13, 1818. 

The same Spectator contains the proclamation of the superintendent of Indian 
aifairs, tlirowiug open the Cayuse country for settlements, showing, in connection 
with the above, that the missionaries, so far from inviting settlers to the Cayuse and 
Nez Perces countries, they discouraged it, and the citizens resi^ected their wish up 
till the period of the massacre. 

"In consideration of the barbarous and insuft'erable conduct of the Cayuse Indians, 
as portrayed in the massacre of the American families at Waiilatpu "^ * 

^ and with a view to inflict upon them a just and proper punishment, as 

well as to secure and protect our fellow-citizens emigrating from the States, ' 

' " after consultation with his excellency, George Abernathy, governor 

of Oregon Terricory, I, H. A. G. Lee, superintendent of Indian affairs, hereby declare 
the territory of said Cayuse Indians forfeited by them and justly subject to be 
occupied and held l)y American citizens resident in Oregon. * *- # 

In testimony of which I subscribe my name. 

H. A. G. LEE, 
Siq)eriiitendent of Indian Affairs, Territory of Oregon. 

Indian Department, Oregon City, 

Julu 6, 1848. 

Out (if that gloom came up a voice, deep, clear, loud, yet single, for it was the 
voice of all, as of one, " These brutal murders must and shall be avenged." 

Dr. Whitman's juission among the Indians was a mission of love; he and his 
worthy associates have spent years in faithful and active endeavors to improve the 
mental and moral condition of those Indians, and in the midst of that mission he, 
his worthy lady, and twelve Americans have fallen victims to Indian ingratitude and 
insatiable love of blood. Surely those brutal murders mnst and should be avenged. — 
Judge Wait, editor of the Oregon Spectator, Fehruarg 16, 1848. 

The war in which this little settlement is engaged lias not been produced by the 
indiscretions of its members, nor by any infringement of nor by aggressions upon 
the rights of the Indians, but by Indian inhuman butcheries of unoff'ending citizens, 
induced by a thirst for the blood of the servants of the Living God.— ./((fZ;/e Wait, 
editor of the Oregon Spectator, Fehruarg 24, 1848. 

The Cayuse tribe, after connnitting numerous outrages and robberies upon the late 
emigrants, have, without semblance of provocation or excuse, murdered eleven Ameri- 
can citizens. Among them were Dr. Marcus Whitman and his amiable wife, members 
of the American Board of Foreign 'Missions.— 3femorial of tJie legislative asscinbly of 
Oregon Terr Hory to the Senate an dJIo use of Bcpresentat ires of the United States, January, Wi8, 

Mr. Speaker, could you read in the records of heaven the deeds of this power, 
(Hudson's Bay Company,) in Oregon, your whole moral nature wt)uld lie shocked by 
the baseness of the designs and the means for their accom2>lishment. If a settler 
located anywhere against the company's will he had to pay the forfeit. 

(Hearing of these jirojected plans in the United States, these Jesuitical rascals 
took the earliest nnans possible to head off' the enter])rises and to wrest the whole 
country from us and out Government.) Dr. McLaughlin received orders, as the 
governor of this western liranch of this company, to dispatch agents to Fort Hall 
and order them to stop the American emigration, and, if possible, to prevent them 
from crossing the Blue Mountains. And if that lamented man, Dr. Marcus Whit- 

S. Ex. Doc. 37 4 



48 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

man, bad not l)een murdered, as well as papers burned, we sbould bave bad tbe 
evidence wbicb this ((inipany feared. 

Mr. Speaker, tbere is a tale about tbe murder of tbis Dr. Wbitman ol' no little inter- 
est to tbis Hudson's Bay Company. Wbeu Wbitman, wbo piloted tbe emigration of 
1843, arrived at Fort Hall, wben tbey found tbese men would not be deterred l(y any 
otber means, they threatened to bar tbem by tbe Hudson's Bay Company, wbo bad 
possession of tbe country and wbo would not allow tbem to settle. Of tbe unirder 
of Dr. Wbitman and tbat great number of American emigrants, wbicb murder I bave 
no more doubt was iustigaled by tbe Hudson's Bay Comx)any tban I doubt my exist- 
ence. — Hon. S. 11. TItKrston's speech in the House of lieprescntutives, December '26, 18."30. 

We entertain a very bigb respect for tbe Rev. H. H. Spalding. He left bome and 
friends and comfort, and passed, witb tbe wife of bis cboice, into a distant wilder- 
ness, to rear a family and wear out bis own life and tbat oi' his estimable wife in teach- 
ing tbe arts of civilization and tbe glad tidings of salvation to tbe benighted savages. 

Mr. Spalding and bis associates own no property in Oregon. What they bave 
grown and reared bas been so much saved to and lor tbe society whose stewards they 
are. We bave seen a disposition to undervalue tbe objects and efforts oi' mission- 
aries. This is wrong, and a moment's reflection will satisfy all of tbe injustice of 
imputing selfisb motives to tbe missionaries. Tbe importance of tbe country, as 
described by tbem, lirougbt the citizens of Oregon here. We can readily see what 
brougbt the Hudson's Bay Company here; but what broiujht the miss onai-ies, who, 
with their lives in their bands, led the way witb their wives into this country, wben 
it was almost unknown and entirely unappreciated^ It would appear that there is 
but one answer; it was tlie high and boly estimation wbicb tbey placed upon the 
importance of souls and tbe command of their Great Master in Heaven. — Judge Wait, 
editor of the Oregon Spectator. Jnly 18, 181N. 

2. On pages 18 and 27, tbat tbe missionaries promised tbe Cayuse and Nez Perces 
"to pay them every year for their lands;'" also, "to come every year a big ship 
loaded witb goods to lie divided among tbe ludians; not to be sold, but to be given 
to them; " also, " jilows and hoes, not to sold but given to you." 

Answer. I believe tbis to be false. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

Their instructions from the board were directly tbe opposite. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

(See letter of Presbyterian Committee to Blakely.) 

3. On page 27, " that tbe want of fulttllment ol' tbese promises was one of tbe true 
causes remote and immediate of the whole evil." 

Answers. I believe tbis false. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 
Slanders of tbe worst description. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

4. On pages 19 and 26, tbat "Dr. and Mrs. Whitman were severe and bard to tbem, 
(Indians,) and ill-treated tbem;'" tbat Spalding and wile were so " bad" tbe "Nez 
Perces blockaded the missionaries" in the house "for mox'e tban a month;" that the 
Catholics were " sent three times to induce tbe Indians to set tbe missionaries at 
liberty." 

Answers. I believe tbis all false. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

All tbe above charges against Dr. Whitman are untrue, I am certain. Dr. and 
Mrs. Whitman were good people, and lost their lives laboring for those who murdered 
tbem; and tbat tlie name of Mrs. Spalding will be cherished while a single Nez 
Perces remains. 

R. NEWELL. 

5. On page 28, that "missionaries worked only for themselves;" "refused obsti- 
nately from year to year to pay the price tbey had promised for their lands," and 
"persisted to keep them;" " neglected tbe Indians:'' did, taught, helped, nor made 
"nothing for them unless tbey sbould be paid a great price." 

Answers. Also false. 

G. A. 

A Jesuit slander, repeated by Congress, to their shame and tbe shame of all Americans. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 
Totally untrue. 

R. NEWELL. 

6. On pages 3. 21, 22, 25, 28, and 31, tbat tbe Protestant missionaries i^roduced " evil 
effects upon tbe Indians;'' "instead of Christianizing the Indians, showed a very bad 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 49 

example to the races;" "did not benefit the Indians;" "made them worse;" "neither 
taught,uor helped, nor furnished them with anything ;neither written norprintedbooks; 
neither schools nor board, nor clothing for boarding children ; no room or care for the 
sick; no medicine for the nation, and provided no saw or flour mill for the benefit of 
the nation; no shops, no church, no spinning and weaving room; helped them to 
nothing, neither seeds, plows, hoes, nor cattle; neither sheep, orchards, ditches, nor 
farms; never visited the sick, nor gave an Indian a piece of meat when hungry; 
neither translated nor printed for them any part of the Bible." 

Answer. I believe all false. How any set of men could make such assertions I 
cannot understand, as thev are directly opposed to the facts in the case. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

All slanders of the worst description; and it was only as the .Jesuits were running 
Congress that that body ever published such scandal. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 
Totally untrue. 

WM. GEIGER, Jr. 

7. On page 28, that "the missionaries (Whitman and Spalding) took their (Indians') 
horses, cattle, and grain," and "traded them to the emigrants," "without dividing 
with the Indians, and were getting rich." 

Answer. Do not believe a word of it. 

G. A. 
A Jesuit slander, repeated by Congress. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

8. On pages 30 and 31, that "the applications of the missionaries to get excessive 
riches," " with excessive seeking for temporal welfare." 

Answer. I believe the efibrts of the missionaries were to elevate and benefit the 
Indians, not to obtain riches. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

Spalding and Whitman had not a dollar salary, and were allowed by the board to 
draw but JfoOO a year for each family, with which to do everything in that " great and 
terrible wilderness," destitute of everything, 200 miles from nearest mill, and 400 
from shop or store, and with that to feed, clothe, house themselves, to do all mis- 
sionary work, to put up shops, mills, churches, school-houses, and printing office, 
open farms, and keep all going. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

I think the missionaries were not allowed any salary, and were required to prac- 
tice the most strict economy, in order to support their large families. Dr. Whitman 
had eleven children, (white.) Mr. Spalding had some twenty boarding children^ 
(Indian,) beside the large Indian school. 

A. HINMAN. 

/ The missionaries (Spalding and Whitman) owned no property. — Oregon Spectator 
of July, 1848. 

All these results were accomplished at an expense to the American Board of Missions 
of $500 per annum for each mission family ; the enterprise and indefatigable industry 
of the missionaries did the rest with native help. — Sacramento I'nion, July 10, 1869. 

In this lonely situation they (Spalding and wife) have spent the best j)art of their 
days for no other compensation than a scanty subsistence. 

.JOEL PALMER. 

9. On pages 26, 22, and 23, that Dr. and Mrs. Whitman and Spalding "sent to the 
States for poison to kill the Cayuse and Nez Perces ;" received poison by the emigrants 
that year; distributed it to kill tigers,as he (Whitman) "said,laughing," that Whitman 
and wife and Spalding w^ere overheard to say " Such an Indian has so many horses, 
and such an Indian has so many spotted horses; when the Indians are all dead, our 
boys will drive them up, and we will give them to our friends, who will be on from 
the States and want to settle on these good lands, and we will live easy." 

Answer. Any one that knew Dr. Whitman would at once say this is all untrue. 
It is probably made to turn attention from the true cause of the massacre. 

GEORGE ABERNATHY. 

The entire statements are as false as hell itself. So far as my means of informa- 
tion have enabled me to judge, there never has been one single incident from which 
any one of thtrabove nine statements could have originated other than from a 
depraved heart, and wirh an intent to falsify. 

JOEL PALMER. 



5U EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IX OREGON. 

j\Iy reply to the ealunmies nuiler the above nine statenieuts is, to my persoual 
kiiowleclge it was entirely the reverse. 

L N. GILBERT. 
The entire uiue statements are perfectly false as can l)e. 

P. H. HATCH. 

Ihese statements under these nine heads are maliciously false, to my personal 
knowledge, and n)ade, as I believe, for no other purjiose than to shift the responsi- 
bility of the Whitman massacre from those guilty Catholics to those who were as 
innocent as the President of the I'uited States. 

A. HINMAN. 

Nothing further from the truth than the entire nine statements, and so proved at 
the time, and Congress was wofnllv ignorant that they did not know it. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

Now, therefore, it is resolved by this presbytery, that in the opinion of this presby- 
tery, from a vast array of most reliable testimony now before us on the subject, the 
unfavorable statements made in this congressional document concerning the Protes- 
tent missii'uaries in Oregon are in the highest degree false and slanderous. — Willa- 
mette I're-sbi/tern of the Cumherland Freshiiteriaii Cliiirch, May, 18(59. 

Your committee find, from overwhelming evidence from the testiujony of different 
United States officers, civil and military, and from other citizens of most reliable 
credibility, that this congressional document has involved in it so many prominent 
and al)solute falsehoods as to cast most fallacious and infamous reriectio s u^ion the 
characters of the elevated and faithful missionaries of the American iioard there 
laboring at that time, — Extract from resolutions adopted bij the Congregational Associa- 
tion of Oregon, June, 1869. 

The notoriety which these atrocities speedily obtained naturally aroused the insti- 
gators to attempt at concealment, where secrecy could avail and at self-defense where 
the facts cnuld be neither suppressed nor distorted. They have songht to exculpate 
themselves by various expedients, and especially in the publication above referred 
to, in which the character of Dr. Whitman anil his associates is traduced, their 
motives assailed, their actions misrepresented, and thus a deliberate attempt is made 
to stigmatize the fame of men and women which is far above reproach, and whose 
services as patriots and ])hilanthropists entitle them to the lasting gratitude of the 
nation. — Extract from resolutions adopted hj/ tlie Oregon Presbyterij of the Old School 
Fresbi/terian Cluirch, Jniie, 1<S69. 

From personal knowledge, some of us being residtnits of the country at the time, 
and from overwhelming testimony, we arc convinced that Romanism and I'ritisli 
influence were the main causes of the \Miitman massacre and the wars that fol- 
lowed, ami of the persecuting and banishing from the counti'j' the Protestant mis- 
sionaries, and of destroying their property and imperiling their health and lives. 
Romanism has, we are persuaded, with a bitterness unparalleled except in the past 
history of its own bloody acts, attempted, in every way possible to them, the utter 
subversion of Protestantism in (Jie<j;on.— From the resolutions adopted hij the Oregon 
Preshi/tery of the United Freshyterian Church, 18()H-'69. 

i5nt we reject this congressional '-chapter on Protestant missions" with unutter- 
able mortification as Americans, and with the deejiest detestation as Protestants, and 
for the following reasons: 1st. Pecause it lireathes on every page the most malig- 
nant bitterness against the Protestant Church. 2d. Because it is a libel on ( begon's 
history, and a gross calumny on Oregon's pioneers, — From the Fesoluiions of the Fleas- 
ant Bute Baptist Cliurch, JAnn County, Oregon, October, 1869. 

These are the monsters who, with their hands red with the blood of American Pro- 
testants, receive a copyright from our American Congress to prepare testimony against, 
and chaiJters on, Protestant missions. But, as Oregonians, werejcct this "chapter," 
and we rcspectfnlly advise Congress to burn it — to call in every one of the 7.">.(00 
volumes and burn them. You owe it to yourselves; yon owe it to the age; you owe it 
to Oregon. The most significant and ominous feature of this whole affair is, not that 
the Indians could be induced to butcher their teachers; not that the .Jesuit priests 
could pay down the savages on the s]»ot for butchering the heretics, by baptizing their 
blood-stained children while the murders were going on, and by handing out. with 
their own hands, our helpless cai)tive young women and infants to be the sport of the 
tomahawk and brutalities worse than death ; not that they could meditate the destruc- 
tion, by the tomahawk, of the entire infant settlements, to gloat their hellish hate of 
Protestantism and Americans, and actually did ship up the Columbia River a great 
quantityof ammunition for the combined savagehosts waiting at theDes Chutes for it, as 
tiiey themselves announced three days before it arrived at the Dalles, where it was 
intercepted at the last critical moment. This is all in keeping with Romanism; but 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 51 

that Cougress should offer this iiifamous docuuieut to the world as ^' an inieresting and 
authentic diapler in tlie liistoru of Prolesianl missions.'' This actiou of the Exectiveaud 
of Congress speaks a lauguagc louder than words can litter. It is a direct insult to 
the Protestant Church. — From the Report adopted bij the Christian Churclt. in Linn 
Count 11, Oref/on, October, 1869. 

Also, by the annual meeting of said body, for Oregon, in Polk County, in 1870. 

These proofs, in the Oregon publications of the day, drew out a lengthy publication 
in the Freemen's Journal, New York, 1848. headed " Protestnnisni in Oregon," given with 
all the sophistry of the Jesuit mind, and which directly attempted to show that the 
missionaries were horse thieves and poisoners, laboring only to make money out of the 
Indians, giving them no instruction, and continually breaking i)lighted faith with 
them. That they brought destruction upon themselves, and were entirelj' unworthy 
of confidence. The publication of it deserves little notice, only as it was embodied 
word for word in the report of J. Ross Browne, and publislied as an executive docu- 
ment by order of the House of Rejiresentatives. Tbirty-tifth Congress, and went forth 
to the word a gross slander on American missionaries, who lost their lives in the cause 
they had espoused, and Avhose memories should be honored so long as the story of the 
early settlement of Oregon is told. There is no possible excuse for Mr. Browne. He 
either maliciously took this course to slander the memory of martyred dead, or he was 
too heedless of great principles and of the mission intrusted to him to give it con- 
scientious performance. — Sacramento U)iion, Jnly, 1869. 

And this false narrative was, by Congress, published to the world, with no reply to 
its enormous statements. It is one of the strongest, shrewdest lueasnres of the Jesuits 
of which we have read in American history, to get Congress to publish this narra- 
tive of over fifty pages, filled with most erroneous charges against the Protestant 
missionaries, trying to throw off from themselves the well-founded iiublic belief that 
they were the real causes of this horrible massacre, and place the blame npon Amer- 
icans. Also, that Browne should, from choice or otherwise, become a tool of these 
Jesuits to get Congress to publish the false accoaut, virtually sanctioning it as true, 
and placing it alone among its permanent documents for future reference, is a fact that 
calls for unmeasured condemnation. — I'he Pacific, of San Fran ci>ico,. Jul y 22, 1869. 

But to call attention to a great wrong that has been done the memory of these early 
Christian pioneers by the Congress of the United States. This insidious libel upon 
those devoted Christian martyrs was ingeniously iialmed upon the Department of the 
Treasury by J. Ross Browne. The priest, Brouilette, wrote in the most malicious 
spirit, such as is expected of Rome. As for J. Ross Browne, he richly deserves to 
be held up to the scorn and contempt of every honest man for sufl'ering himself to 
be made the mouth-2)ioce for trumpeting forth a gross and malicious calumny against 
the most self-sacrificing band of Christian pioneers that ever braved the dangers of 
a pagan wilderness. — American Unionist, Salem, Oregon, ./»«e 26, 1869. 

It is affirmed in this congression.al document, that " these pages will form an inter- 
esting and authentic chapter in the history of Protestant missions." And in this 
'chapter," the Hon. J. Ross Browne took advantageof his position as an officer of 
the Government to advance the interest of the Catholic Church, by covering with 
obloquy the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for the promotion of republican 
lilierty and Christian civilization, and of utterly destroying the character of the only 
survivor of that heroic baud, the first to cross the Rocky Mountains and the continent 
■with their wives, and the first to plant the seeds of pure Christianity in Eastern 
Oregon. We refer to the Rev. II. H. Spalding. — From the manifesto adopted by the 
Oregon Conference of the Alethodist Episcopal Church, 1869. 

Oregon owes too much to Protestant missions to allow such monstrous falsehoods to 
go without remonstrance. It is not generosity, nor eulogy of the memories of those 
who may truly be called the founders of the State, which is desired; it is simple 
justice. Let honor be given to whom honor is due. — Pacific Chrixtian Advocate. 

From Rev. Gustavus Hines, missionary and presiding elder, Alethodist Fypiscopal Church. 

Salem, Okegon, March 22, 1869. 

This is to certify that I arrived in Oregon in the .spring of 1840; that I have been 
identified with the country most of the time since that period ; that I have been cog- 
nizant of, and conversant with, all the early missionary establishments, both under 
the direction of Spalding and Whitman, in the interior, and of the Lees, in the valley 
of the Willamette, and that, according to the best of my knowledge, the extracts 
from congressional documents, as taken by the Rev. R. H. Spalding, involving the 
character of Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, Mr. Spalding and wife, as well as others, 
are wholly and totally false. And I furthermore state that the missionaries referred 
to, instead of deserving the foul censures of the great American Congress, have been 
the greatest benefactors of the nation upon the Pacific coast. 

GUSTAVUS HINES. 



52 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

Qnestion. On the other hand, did not the Catholic priests and the Hudson's Bay 
men oppose the settling of the country by Anierican settlements from the beginning, 
and the formation of the provisional government? 

Answer. Thisis mybelief ; thevopposedtheformatiouof theprovisional government. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 
That is my opinion. 

P. H. HATCH. 

In every move to promote the settlement and internal improvement of Oregon, Dr. 
McLaughlin and the Hudson's Bay Company to a man have been opposed, until they 
were absolutely compelled by force of circumstances to yield. The history of that 
company in Oregon is no less oppressive and unjust, as regards Ameiican citizens, than 
was that of their ancestors in 1776. — ITon. .S. li. Thurstou, in ( ongress, heceniber, 1850, 
from n petition to Congress by -'S early Oregonians — G. Nines, Shorfess, Bears, and others. 

From Dr. Treat, Secretary of American Board of ( Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1S70. 

MASSACRE OF DK. WHITMAN — A CHAPTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY — HOW OREGON WAS 
SAVED TO THE UNITED STATES — WHO EXCITED THE INDIANS TO MURDER THE 
MISSIONARIES ? 

Nearly ten years ago a document was published at Washington which seems to have 
attracted very little notice at first — it may have done its appointed work, neverthe- 
less — but which has caused within the last few months no small stir beyond the Rocky 
Mountains. It is known as Executive Document Xo. 38, House of Representatives, 
Thirty-fifth Congress, first session, and was printed by order of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. This document contains a "letter of J. Ross Browne, special agent of 
the Treasury Department, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reviewing the 
origin of the Indian war of 1855-'56 in the Territories of Oregon and ^Vashington.'' 

This " letter" apparently, and nothing else, was called for by the House of Repre- 
sentatives ; bnt we find, to our utter astonishment, after perusingits less than twelve 
pages, with grave questionings here and there, that we have come to an essay of more 
than fifty pages on "Protestantism in Oregon." We find, too, that this essay was 
written and published in the New York Freeman's.Jourual. by Rev. J. B. A. Brouilette, 
vicar general of Walla- Walla, some ten years Ijet'ore the date of Browne's letter. An 
"American may be pardoned for asking, just here, why an ex-p.arte scatement of such 
suspicious length, already before the world, should be a})pendedtoa "lettei," addressed 
by a special agent of the Treasury Department to the Commissioner of Indian Aftairs, 
and why esjiecially it was called for and printed by the House of Representatives? 

It is easy enough to understand the motives of Father Brouilette in writing this 
monograph, but it is not so easy to understand why it shoubl have received such 
distinguished honor from Hon, .J. Ross Browne and the House of Representatives. It 
was quite natural that Father Brouilette should wish to free himself and associates 
from blame; liut why should the House of Representatives, so many years after, call 
for and give currency to his defense at public charges under the name of " Protestant- 
ism in Oregon ? '' The Congregational Association of Oregon adopted a report in .lune 
last which condemns the " prominent and absolute falsehood" of this document, and 
expresses the belief, "from evidence clear and sufficient to them," that the Roman 
Catholic priests did themselves instigate violence to the missions, resulting in the 
massacre. Similar action was taken by the Old School, the Cumberland, and United 
Presbyterian Presbyteries, The Methodist Conference, composed of more than seventy 
preachers, under the presidency of Bishop Kingsley, adopted a comprehensive and able 
report, in which the massacre at Waiilatpu is declared to have been " wholly unpro- 
voked by Dr. Whitman or any member of the mission," and to have arisen from the 
policy of the Hudson's Bay Company " to exclude American settlers,'" and " the efforts 
of Roman priests directed against the establishment of Protestantism in the country." 
Other religious bodies have acted, it is believed, and valuable testimony is borne to 
the character of the missionaries. While the motives of Hon, .J. Ross Browne in 
ajipending Father Brouilette's pamphlet to his "letter," and the reasons of the 
House of Representativ<'s for publishing the same, are open to grave suspicions, facts 
have been elicited which throw light on the bearings and uses of the missionary 
enterprise. — New York Evangelist, January <i, 1S70. 

J)iiport(.nt testimony of civil and military officers and old cificens and religious bodies. 

WHO EXCITED THE INDIANS TO KILL DOCTOR WHITMAN AND WII'E AND OTHERS, AND 
TO DESTROY THE AMERICAN SETTLEMENT? 

Question. Do not nineteen out of twenty of the Americans who were in the country 
at the time, believe that it was Romanism and British influence which caused the 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 53 

bloody massacre of Doctor Whitman and wife and the American emigrants who were 
butchered with them? 

JiiSK-er. They could not believe otherwise. Had Romanisui never come here the 
massacre never would have occurred. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 
That is my opinion. 

JOEL PALMER. 
I know it to be so. 

J. N. GILBERT. 
I have no other opinion. 

P. H. HATCH. 
I so believe. 

A. HINMAN. 
The above sentiment was uuiversjil. 

WILLIAM GEIGER, Jr. 

At that time I was editor of the Oregon American, and I am positix e in my testimony 
that an overwhelming majority of the Americans held it as proved, that the Jesuit 
missionaries were the procuring cause of the Whitman massacre and the other Amer- 
cans who fell with him. and of the Indian wars that followed. So fully were the 
Jesuits convicted that no one has ever attempted a replv in Oregon in their behalf. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

That the causes of the massacre were reducible to two, viz, the purpose of the En- 
glish government or of tlie Hudson Bay Company to exclude American settlers from 
the conn try, and the eftbrts of Catholic priests to prevent the introduction of education 
andof l-*rotestauti8m bypreventing the settlement of American settlements, and that the 
efforts which both parties made, operating on the ignorant and suspicious minds of 
the savages, led to the butchery in which twenty lives were destroyed, and the most 
dreadful sufferings and brutal injuries indicted on the survivors. — Oregon Presbytery, 
Old School Presbyterian Church, June 22, 1869. 

That the massacre was wholly unprovoked by Dr. Whitman, or any member or 
members of the mission. 

That the true cause of the massacre maybe found in the course and policy pursued 
by the Hudson Hay Company, which was an embodiment of the British Government 
at that time in the country, to exclude American settlers from the lanil, and the efforts 
of the Roman priests directed against the establishment of Protestanism in the country, 
which they hoped to accomiilish by preventing its settlement by American citizens. 
These two things, a knowledge of which was possessed by the savages, excited them, 
doubtless, to perpetrate the horrid butchery, and to indict upon the survivors the 
most indescribable brutalities. — The Methodist Conference of Oregon, An(just, 1869. 

That from what is regarded as evidence of the most reliable character this pres- 
bytery is fully convinced that the Roman clergy then occupying the country were 
the principal instigators of the Whitman tragedy. — Orange Presbytery of Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church, May, 1869. 

Your committee believe, from evidence clear and sufficient to them, that these 
Roman priests did themselves instigate violence to the mission, resulting in the mas- 
sacre, and that this document, so strangely published by Congress, with no rebutting 
statements accompanying it, was prepared by them to throw the blame of the massacre 
upon the American missionaries. — Congregational Association of Oregon, June, 1869. 

From personal knowledge and overwhelming testim(my now before us, we, as a 
presbytery, are convinced that Romanism and British influence were the main causes 
of the Whitman massacre, the wars that followed, and the prosecuting and banishing 
from the country the Protestant missionaries, destroying their property and imperil- 
ing their lives. — Oregon Presbytery of United Presbyterian Church, 1868 and 1869. 

Eesolution adopted by the Christian Church of Oregon, at their annual meeting in Polk 

County, June, 1870. 

But we reject this "chapter'' on Protestant missions, or record of the court — if trial 
it is to be regarded, and such it will be, by a majority of readers — because of the 
irregular and extraordinary mode of ijroceeding, and 

1. The so called court had no jurisdiction in the case. The American Congress is 
not an ecclesiastical body, not even a judicial ; but the case is purely religious, being 
Protestantism in Oregon. 

2. It had no jurisdiction as to territory. The four scores and ten crimes or counts, as 
found in the bill of the indictment against the criminal, are set orth as committed in 
the Territory of (Jregon ; but the court sits in the city of Washington, 3,000 miles away, 



54 EARLY LABOKS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

thus repeating in this vepublicau commonwealth the grievance loudest comi)lained 
of by tlie fathers of 177tJ. 

3. Three of the four individuals brought before the court for trial were dead, and 
had been for years; fell martyrs to that very Government which is thus tearing opeu 
their graves in Oregon, and taking tht-m o,000 miles to Washington to blacken them 
in their public documents; and the only survivor was not notiiied ot said intended 
trial, (another breach of the Constitution.) consequently had no ojiportnnity to con- 
front the testimony or to otfcr testimony, and where more than property or life was 
at stake, (another breach of the Constitution,) and the conrt, even the United States 
Congress refused to api>oint a counsel, which is always done in every court of the 
civilized world, even for the vilest of criminals. 

i. There was no jury. Thus in several particulars the fiindameutal principles of 
the sacred Constitution of the United States are violated in this royal farce. 

5. The character of the testimony which the court I'elt themselves authorized to 
accept in this trial of " Protestantism in Oregon," and the manner of collecting it 
caps the climax. Nothing like it in the history of any court of the civilized world, 
and tit rather for the dark ages of the Spanish inquisition, when black suspicion 
and hellish hate took the place of calm reason and truth. 

Fifteen of the so-called witnesses were known to have been concerned in the horrible 
butchery, and must have been so known to the court, and which would have thrown 
their testimony out of any other court in the civilized world. Five of them had been 
tried and executed for the murder of Dr. Whitman. Nine statements put down in 
the testimony as the statements of General Joel Palmer and the Hon. Robert Newell, 
are proved by the testimony of these gentlemen, given to our conunittee, to have 
been forged against them. They never made such statements. And the whole of 
the so-called testimony is but Indian rumors passing through many hands. 

We reject this so-called "chapter on Protestant missions," prepared at so great 
expense and sent forth to the world on the wheels of the Post Office Department as 
" an authentic chapter on Protestant missions, "(doubtless through some kind of smug- 
gling.) to sadden the hearts of the children of the faithful dead and the friends of mis- 
sions, because that from iiersonal knowledge, some of us being in the country at the 
time, and from a vast array of testimony of the most unimpeachable character now 
before us, from old Oregoniaus, from eye-witnesses, from the captives, from military 
and civil officers, we are convinced that it was the Romish clergy and British agents 
working together to set on the Indians to destroy the American settlement and hand 
the country back to England, which instigated the massacie in wliicli Dr. Whitman, 
his amiable wife, Mrs. Spalding, and seventeen others, nn)stly American emigrants 
stopping to winter and recruit, lost their lives, and tbeuu)st brutal atrocities practiced 
upon female captives, reserved for a fate worse than death; the Protestant missions 
broken up, the last American forced to leave Midtlle Oregon, and the country involved 
in the long and most disastrous Indian Avars. 

6. Because this exective document, or so-called chapter on "Protestantism in Ore- 
gon," was written bv one of the i>riucipal instigators of that most horrible butchery— 
a Jesuit by the nanieof I. B. A. Brouilette, the vicar-geneial of the pa]):il hosts on this 
coast— anil published in the Freeman's Journal, New York, a i)aper that has always 
proclaimed its ha tred of Protestantism and our free schools and free press. This vicar- 
general Avas on the ground at Waiilatpu during the horrible butchery, which lasted 
eight days, with his bishop and thirteen priests, direct from Euroiie, camped at helping 
distance around, and with one of his overland ])arty— an educated half-breed from 
Canada, by the name of Jo LeAvis— at the window outside, by Dr. Whitman's head, to 
give the signal for the tomahawks to commence, Avho shot Mrs. Whitmau through the 
breast, and with his oavu hands butchered Hotiman and two other Americans; 
who told the Caynse and Oregon Indians he had seen, before he left the States, the 
letters of Spalding and Mrs. Whitman calling Ibi' poison to come by the emigrants to 
kill the Cayuse and Nez Perces. It was a question of life or death Avith them ; they 
must destroy the Americans while few, or be destroyed. He would help them. The 
vicar-general and bishop, just over from the great father, the Pope, would furnish 
plenty of ammnnition Irom the English posts." This Brouilette, to remove all doubt 
from the minds of the Oregon Indians as to his abhorrence of Americans, and as pay 
down to the savages for butchering the heretics, actually proceeded to baptize the 
blood-stained children of the murdering savages while the butchery was going on and 
the unburied dead and gasping bodies lay about hisfeet; hogs and dogs running about 
with parts in their mouths; the screams of our ever to be pitied young women, Avrith- 
ing in the hands of unrestrained brutality, his church music ; and who, with his bishop 
and associates, handed over with their own hands our young helpless girls to be bru- 
talized before their eyes, and turned our escaped fathers and inlauts and mothers out 
of their doors to be scalped by the savages, (see the testimony of Mr. Osborn, Miss 
Bewly, of George Abernathy, General Palmer, &c. ;) and who, when our dear, helpless 
children and mothers Avere huddled in a corner, with blood-streaming tomahawks 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 55 

brandished over their heads by the Indian Tvomeu, crying to the chief, " Shall we 
strike ? '' rushed in among them, took a phial from the doctor's shelf, and holding it up 
to the excited Indians cried ouit through his Canadian helper, " Here is the identical 
j)oison; see what your Protestant Whitman and Spalding were doing; bury this or 
you are all dead." And our captives saw the bos filled with earth, the phial put in as 
this priest directed, and taken oft' to be buried. (See testimony of C. Segor and Eliza 
Spalding, captives.) And all this to excite the savages to chop our helpless children 
and mothers to pieces ou the spot. Hut the chief refused. And who, after all this ; after 
the last Protestantmissionary and American in Eastern Oregon hadbeenkilled or forced 
from the country, but his hate of Protestanism an<l of Americans, not yet sufficiently 
satisfied, could meditate the horrible butchery and attendant atrocities by the savages 
of the entire American settlements, and for that purpose actually shipped up the river 
from the English post at Vancouver over 3,000 pounds of powder and ball and boxes 
of guns, for the combined savages, and which was taken from them by Lieutenant 
Rogers and his little liand of faithful Americans, only fifteen miles short of the camp 
of savages at Des Clintes, who had boasted only three days before that plenty of 
ammunition was coming by tlie priests for them, and then they would fall vi})on the 
American settlement and cut them off and take their women and cattle. 

And while it remained a Rondsh production by such hands, no one took any notice 
of it, as the authors were totally unworthy of credit: but to our utter astonishment 
it now appears, word for word, in this '■ Ex. Doc.,"' and is offered to us by the Amer- 
ican Congress, Avith an audacity that has no parallel in modern history, as "an inter- 
esting and authentic chapter in the history of Protestant missions.'' (Page 13, said 
document.) But we reject it with becoming American disdain, and as Protestants 
of this Pacific West we respectfully advise Congress to burn it — to call in, without 
delay, every one of those documents and burn them. Yon owe it to yourselves, to 
your country, and to the age. 

JOHN M. HARRIS, Moderator. 

W. H. ROWLAND. Clerk. 

Question, Was not Romanism detected at Fort Wascopum (Dalles) in the at- 
tempt to transport a large amount of ammunition and arms up the Columbia, to fur- 
nish the upjier savages, who were assembled at Des Chutes in great numbers, waiting, 
as they declared openly and definautly, to receive it from the priests, and then fall 
upon the little garrison, and then come down upon the infant settlements and 
cut them oft', arid take their women and cattle as booty, and return and cut off the 
on-coming emigration of that fall? 

Avstcers. It is true as to arnss and powder being taken np by the priests, and 
seized at the Dalles. I ordered the muskets and ammunition sent back, and detained 
them at Oregon City until Governor Lane arrived. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

There were manv events leading us to come to such conclusion. 

J. PALMER. 

Question. W^as not over four thousand pounds of powder and balls, and three boxes 
of guns seized and taken fi'oni the priests at Fort Wascopum, fifteen miles short of 
this great camp of combined savages, by Lieutenant Rogers and his little baud of 
fifteen, in l«48f 

Ansicers. The powder and guns were seized by Lieutenant Rogers. He wrote me 
about it. I ordered them sent to me. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

There was a large amount taken from them, but I do not recollect the amount, or 
number of gnus. 

JOEL PALMER. 

Question. Did not "Romanism in Oregon" pay down the savages for butchering 
the American heretics and for breaking up the American settlements, by baptizing 
the children of the savage murderers while they were actually killing, and the dead 
bodies of the slain lay about unburied, the food of hogs and wolves, and the screams 
of our captive young women in the hands of unrestrained brutality his church 
music; and by giving, with their own hands, our captive girls into the hands of the 
savages to be their wives ; and by turning escaped Americans and their little 
children out of their posts, to be scalped by the Indians? 

Answers. This is what I heard at the time. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

The Indians admitted and the captives asserted that the children of the murderers 
were baptized as stated, and the captive girls were given by the priests to some of 
the chiefs; and persons were refused admittance into the Hudson's Bay Company's 
post by McBean ; and Hall was killed after being turned out. 

JOEL PALMER. 



66 EAKLY LABORS OF MTSSI0I<:ARIES IN OREGON. 

Question. Have we not bad to light nil the tribes on this northwest coast, as Colonel 
Nesmith reported when superintendent of Indian affairs, who have been under 
Roiiianisuif 
Answers. This has been the case. 

GEO. ABERNATHV. 
Nearlv all, I believe. 

JOEL PALMER. 

I was in command of the Oregon volunteers in 1855-'56 when there was a concert 
of ac'tion with all the tribes on the northwest coast against the Americans, except 
the Nez I'erces alone, \A'ho have always been friendly. In 1856, they furnished sev- 
eral hundred hoi'ses to remount mv command. 

T. CORNELIUS. 

Question. Were not yourself and counsel fully convinced that the strongest efforts 
were made to induce the Nez Perces to join the combined hosts? 
Answers. That is 2ay opinion. 

G. A. 
Question. What would have lieen the consequences had they joined if 
Answer. Had all the tribes joined, the Americans would have been destroyed. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

A chief of the upper Nez Perces has killed thirty head of cattle at a feast given to 
the nation, and this not being siifHcieut, seven more were killed. This was to unite 
all the hearts of the Indians togetlier, to make war with the Americans. The cause 
of this war is that the Americans are going to seize their lands. — Letter of Priest 
Faudozi Tankiuirnan, April, 18.53. ./. Boss Browne's Beport, 64. 

Question. Did not Romanism defy our infant Government, and keep her mission- 
aries in that middle country among the tribes who declared war upon the Americans, 
and after it was closed by Government against all missionaries alike ? 

Answer. I think the history of that day proves this. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

Yes, tbat is true. 

JOEL PALMER. 

And these are the hands, red with the blood of American mothers and daughters, 
whose prciductions, published ten years before and filled with forgeries upon Oregon's 
best citizens and with self-evident falsehoods to exculpate their own heads and to 
cast the blame on the memory of their victims, are called for by vote of Congress 
and ordered printed; (doubtless by some unfair means, but nevertheless its power 
as a state paper for evil remains the same.) 

It is easy enough to see why Father Brouilette should wish to freehimself and his 
associates from the well-founded belief that they were working with the Hudson's Bay 
Company to bring about the Whitman massacre, to break up the American settlements, 
and to hand the country back to England. But why should the American Congress, 
ten years after, call for Father Brouilette'sex-parte statements, and, at public charge, 
publish them under their seal and sanction and under tlie signiticant heading "Pro- 
testantism in Oregon? '" And above all, why should such a burlesque on the cherished 
religion of the mass of the people of the United States be designated thus — (seepage 
13 said document:) "These pages will form an interesting and authentic chapter in 
the historv of Protestant missions." — Besolutious of Pleasant Bute Baptist Church. 

J. W. WARMOUTH. 

J. C. H. AVKRILL, 

L. C. Rice, 

H. R. POWEL, 

Committee. 

I do not take the religious view of this subject, but the policy view. It is a notorious 
fact that Mr. Spalding is the last Protestant Indian missiimary, and his old home at 
Lapwai the last Protestant Indian mission in a large territory of the United States, 
while several Jesuit mission claims and more than a dozen .Jesuit missionaries remain 
unmolested in the same country. Is it not clearly the duty of the American Govern- 
ment to protect the equal rights of all its citizens? — /Vow a letter of Eon. Anderson 
Cox to his e.rcellency Governor Ballard, of Idaho. 

Convinced that the said executive document has had much to do in causing the 
expulsion of our brother Spalding from his native church; therefore, 

Besolredfinalhj, That the seizing by the Government of the old Protestant mission 
among the ever loyal Nez Perces, in 186J, driving off the American Board, in the person 
of their attorney, by force, pulling down the olil missionary "fe house in 1863, forcing the 
board a second time from their lands, and in 1866 forcing the old missionary, the rem- 
nant of that heroic band of 1836, who had rendered such service to their country and 



EARLY LABORS OF MLSSIONARIES IN OREGON. 



57 



to the early emigrants, aud who himself had giveu his services and the best of his life 
to create enlightened loyalty in the breasts of the Nez Perces nation — our own brother 
beloved — from his old home, his orchards, mills, and farm — his home by the solemn 
acts of Government, by actual possession for thirty years, and until forced away, made 
sacred l)y tlie oft disiilays of God's converting grace, aud by being the birth-place of all 
his children, thus consecrating it to Christ aud to freedom by joys and by tears, by 
prayers, and by blood ; and from his beloved people for whom himself and angel wile 
had abandoned all and left the joys and protection of civilized life loug years before 
Governmentmade footprints upon these shores ; and from his beloved church of nearly 
thirty years" pastorate, and steadily keeping him away by force; and this, too, in the 
face of a strong memorial, repeated for three years, signed by over a thousand of the 
best citizens of Oregon and Washington respectfully asking Government to be allowed 
to renew the work of Christian missions among the loyal Nez Perces at Lapwai, but 
which petition has been steadily denied, thus virtually driving and keeping the Pres- 
byterian Church out of five Territories of the United States, confiscating tlae lands of 
an old religious corporation of over fifty years, driving a Protestant pastor from his 
church, converting the house of God into a horse-stable, the school-room into a public 
brothel, steadily depriving a Christian people of the Sabbath administrations aud the 
word of God; undoubtedly the first record of such defiant and long-continued outrages 
upon the Protestant church in the history of our Government, are well calculated to 
create the most serious apprehensions in the breast of every right-feeling man. And 
the more especially as the Lapwai mission is the last Protestant Indian mission, and 
our brother Spaldiug the last Protestant Indian missionary in five Territories, while 
some fifteen Jesuit mission stations, most of them taken in defiance of the order of 
Government, and some twenty-three Jesuit missionaries, remained unmolested in the 
same field, and some of them known to be the identical instigators of the horrid mas- 
sacre of American missionaries and American citizens above described, who paid 
the savages down for butchering the heretics by baptizing the children of the murder- 
ing savages while the slaughter was going on, and by handing over our helpless girls 
to be made the victims of savage lust, and our infants and mothers to be scalped, and 
who were detected at the Dalles, by Lieutenant Rogers, in attempting to furnish the 
combined savages with large (juantities of ammunition with which to butcher aud 
destroy the last American family in Oregon. 
Done by order of the Christian Churclr, at i^rownsville, Oregon, October 29, 1869. 

JOHN M. HARRIS, 

Modei-aior. 



W:M. H. ROWLAND, 

Clerk. 



Obadiah Thakp, 

D. H. PUTMAX, 

Joseph Huntsaker, 
Wm. H. Rowland, 

Committee. 



THIRTY-SEVENTH AND THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESSES v.s. OREGON'S HIS- 
TORIC DEAD. 

Permit of the War Department. 

War Department, Office of Indian Affairs, 

March 2, 1836. 
Sir: At the request of the Rev. Mr. Greene, of Boston, Massachusetts, I enclose to 
you a permit for your.self and Doctor Marcus Whitman to reside in the Indian country 
among the Flathead and Nez Perces Indians. 
Verv respectfullv. your humble servant, 

ALBERT HERRING. 

Rev. H. H. Spalding, 

8t. Louis, Missouri. 

The American Board of Foreign Missions have apprised the Department tiiat they 
have appointed Doctor Marcus Whitman and Rev. Henry H. Spalding, both of the 
State of New York, to l>e missionaries and teachers to reside in the Indian country 
among the Flathead aud Nez Perces Indians. 

Approving the designs of said board, these gentlemen are permitted to reside in the 
country indicated, and I recommend them to the officers of the Army of the United 
States, to the Indian agents, and to the citizens generally, and request for them such 
attentions and aid as will facilitate the accomi)lishmeut of their object and protection, 
should circumstances require it. 

Given under my hand and thesealofthe War Department this 1st dayof March, 1836. 

LEWIS CASS. 



58 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

Act of Conf/ress confirming fhc hind to the hoard, approved August 14, 1848. 

"That tbe title to tbelmul, uot ex teed ing 640 acres, now occupied as mission stations 
among the Indian tribes in said Territory, together with the improvements thereon, be 
courtrmed and estal)lishe(i in tbe several religious societies to which said missionary 
stations respectively belong." (See Oregon Stats., 185.5, page 3t).) 

Repeated bv (Jovernment, determined to do justice to the mission boards, March 2, 
1853. 

" That the title to the land, not exceeding 640 acres now occupied as mission stations 
aniongthe Indian tribes in said Territory, or that may have been so occupied as mis- 
sionary stations prior to the passage of the act establishing the territorial government 
of Oregon, together with the improvements thereon, be and is hereby cimtirmed in the 
several religious societies to which said mission stations respectively belong."' (Ap- 
proved March 2, 18.53.) 

The act speaks for itself. 

"Permit me to remark that a grant of luiblic land by statute is the highest and. 
strongest form of title known to our land. It is stronger than a patent." — Opinion 
of Attorneii deneral Hates, ATaij 29, 1864. 

But neither statutory grants, oidniou of Attorney General, nor possession of thirty 
years, nor blood of martyred patriots, are regarded now. 

H. H. SPALDING. 



THIRTY-SEVENTH, THIRTY-NINTH, AND FORTY-FIRST CONGRESSES vs. 
PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 

WITNESSES FOR THE DEFEXSK. 

His excellency George Abernathy, governor of Oregon Territory at that date; Hon. 
Joel Palmer, commissioner general and superintendent Indian atfairs at that date, 
and late United States superintendent of Indian affairs for Nez Perces Nation, and 
member of Oregon senate; Hon. R. Newell, Hon. A. Hinman; Messrs. J. N.Gilbert, P. H. 
Hatch; Revs. ,1. S. Griftin, H. H. Spalding, Horace Heart; Mrs. Mary Clymer ; William 
Geiger; the Oregon conference of the Methodist Episcojjal Church, 1869; the Oregon 
presbytery of the Old School Presbyterian Church, 1869; the Oregon presbytery of 
the United Presbyterian Church, 1868; Oi'egon .\ssociation of the Congregational 
Church. 1869; the Oregon Association of the Christian Church, 1869. 

Wliereas the House of Representatives, 3d session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, 
in executive document No. 1, vol. II, page 570, publishes as follows: 

"As it is currently understood, by those in the countrj' at the time, that the mission- 
aries [Mrs. II. H. Spalding] voluntiirily abandoned the cLiim [Lapway mission] on 
the 4th of December, 1847, and went into other business;" 

And whereas the Government upon the above allegation proceeded to violate a sol- 
emn contract of a former administration for the use of said mission for twenty years 
as an agency, and proceeded to junij) said mission claim aad to drive the said American 
board off in the jierson of their attorney, Rev. C. A. Eells, in 1862, and to force the old 
missionarj' in 1S65 from his old home, mills, orchards, from the beloved people and 
large schools, and from his native church of thirty years' pastorate and tore down his 
house ; and whereas the Government has continued to keep forcible jtossession of said 
mission and property Irom that date to this, thus iuflictingdamage upon said American 
board which cannot be estimated, and upon that Nez Perces church and people who 
have rendered such invaluable service to the American people and American Govern- 
ment — a wrong which can never be redressed — by de])riving them thus, year after year, 
of the Sabbath services and luiuistrations of their old pastor. And upon that pastor 
and most faithful missionary— the oldest clergyman upon the Pacific coast — a malicious 
outrage, a living death, an injustice that can never be amended, by driving him thus 
from his home; a home secured to him by three solemn acts of that Government; a 
home sacred to him by the oft di8]>lays of God's converting grace, and where himself 
and sainted wife gave the best of their life services to create in the breasts of the Nez 
Perces nation steadfast loyalty to the American people and Government; a home 
where were born all his children, and by driving him from his beloved church of thirty 
years" ])astorate — gathered into the folil of Christ in that lone land long years ago — 
and by thus placing the brand of infamy upon his Christian character; and especially 
thus inflicting in this specified date a most sacrilegious, baseless, vandalic libel upon 
the memory of one who on the page of Oregon's history stands among tlie very few of 
the most eminently successful and devoted of modern missionaries, and whose heroic 
transit, in company with her equ.ally heroic companion, Mrs. Marcus Whitman, of the 
North American continent, in 1836, over the Rocky Mountains, through the burning 
sand deserts, expecting to be two years, and to winter in the eternal snows and deep 



EARLY LABOKS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 59 

defiles of the mouutains ; to ilo without bread ; to ask their daily food of God aud re- 
ceive it atthehands of the huntsman from the bands of the wild buffalo ; the endurance 
of the horse to hold out the whole journey, aud escape foes and starvation, their de- 
pendence — liable every moment to be pounced upon by the sleepless savage, scalped, 
taken prisoner, or put on foot to starve ; sick or well, compelled to Travel on witliout 
house or shelter, new dangers aud toils multiplying upon every step, where so many 
strong men had perished, and where foot of white women had never trod — an under- 
taking pronounced impossible by mountain men aud travelers for a white Avomau — will 
be by the impartial historian counted anumg if not the principal step thatsecnred this 
great Pacific coast to the American people, as it demonstrated the all-important ciues- 
tion that families and wagons couhl cross; thus by their personal hazards and foot- 
steps they established the overland emigrant route, and thus settled the Pacific slope 
with American settlements; this led to the development, and by American hands, of 
the endless gold helds so long hid from the eye of mortals, aud to the great transcon- 
tinental railroad, aud v, hose memory will be cherished both by the red and the white 
man while a single one remains alive of the Nez Perces race, or the story of the settle- 
ment of Oregon is told : 

Resolved, llicrefore. That the trutli of history, as also the immediate interest of the 
Protestant Church on these shores, aud the honor of men and women whose characters 
are above reproach, demands a vindication at the hands of those who are familar with 
full facts; tothisend, tlierefore, we, thecounnitteeappointedtoexamiuetheexecutive 
documents above referred to, would beg leave to propound to your excellency the 
following questions: 

Question. The Governmeut has published iji the congressional documents and spread 
wide through the laud to the damage of the defendant that it was currently under- 
stood by those in the country at the time that the said defendant voluntarily aban- 
doned the said Lapway mission on the 4th of December, 1847. Was it so understood 
in this country at that time or at any time? 

Answers. — 

The missionaries were ordered to leave the country and forbidden to return to 
their missions. 

GEO. ABERNATHY. 

It was not so nuderstood ; it was deemed improper for Mr. Spalding and family to 
remain in that country until quiet was restored. It was not a voluntary abandon- 
ment of the station. We sent troops to escort Eclls aud Walker out of the country. 

JOEL PALMER. 

The best information that wo have had bv those present says it is false. 

WM. GEIGER. 

I was with the escort, and Mr. Palmer's statement is true. 

J.M.GILBERT. 

Au escort was sent to bring those missionaries out of the Indian country. 

P. H. HATCH.. 

I made no such representations. 

R. NEWELL. 

In no sense true. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

The above delaratiou in the above-said congressional docment is not true in any 
sense. The mission claim was not so abandoned on said 4tli of December, 1847, or at 
any time, and it was not so. understood bv those in the county at the time. 

H.H.SPALDING. 

Deposition before the court of the third judicial district of Oregon, July 5, 1868, as 
called for by the court of the tirst judicial district, Idaho Territory, to give testi- 
mony in the case wherein the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions is plaintiff, and the United States Government defendant. 

Horace Heaut, of the county of Walla- Walla, Washington Territpry, first being 
duly sworn, says: I was stopping with my brother-in-law. Rev. H. H. Spalding, iu 
the fall of 1847. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding were missionaries of the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and had been residing at Lapway, among the Nez 
Perces, since 1836, the year they crossed the mouutains. Sometime in November Mr. 
Spalding and daughter, ten years of age, left home for Dr. Whitman's mission. On 
the 2d of December Mr. Canfield arrived at Lapway woundeil iu the side, aud reported 
the sad news that Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, aud all the American emigrants at Waiilatpu 
(Whitman's station,) were killed by the Indians; that Mr. Spalding was probably 
among the slain. That the women and children, his own wife and children, aud Mr. 



60 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

Spalding's daughter were made prisoners and reserved for a fate worse than death. 
That the the savages in council had determined to exterminate all Americans on the 
Pacitic coast. That a large party of fortj^ of the murderers were holding a scalp-dance 
only twelve miles distant, and wouhl immediately be upon the station to commit a 
second slaughter. My sister threw herself at oucc upon her people, (the Nez Perces,) 
who immediately collected their forces to protect their much-beloved teacher, but 
decided they could not do it so well at the old station, where wood and grass were 
gone, as at a point of tiraljer ten miles distant, where were both and timber to fort. 
This was late Saturday nii;ht. Mrs. S. refused to move on the Sabbath. This, though 
regarded by the four white uien too superstitious, seeme<l \\onderlully to inspire her 
Nez I'erces. The chief said: "Now we know your religion is true; if you keep the 
Sabbath we will keep you;" and for some unaccountable reason the murdering party 
did not show themselves till Monday morning, the 4th of December. As we were 
leaving the station to seek the point of timber, they attacked us. But by this time 
a large force of Nez Perces had collected, and by their steady courage and the inter- 
posing hand of Providence we were saved, women and children. 

On the ninth day after the slaughter at Waiilatpu had commenced, Mr. Spalding, to 
the utter atonishment but great joy of us all, was brought in by the Nez Perces, more 
dead than alive, from starvation, want of sleep, freezing, horrible swelled and mangled 
feet, having miraculously escaped the tomahawk at the first meeting of the murderers 
and priest, and traveled the whole distance of 180 miles by night of Egyptian darkness, 
hid days ; half the distance on foot, his horse escaping, and barefoot, feeling his way 
over frozen ground, ice, suow, cut rocks, and prickly pear; no food, no sleep for six 
days. There were now with ns five white men, two white women, and three children. 
On the 2r)th of December we received an express from Mr. Ogden, of the Hudson Bay 
Company, urging Mr. Spalding and all Americans to lose no time injoiuing him at 
Fort Walla- Walla, as our only hope of escaping from the country. This had been our 
only hope, .and we regarded it a striking providence. We left on the 28th of Decem- 
ber under an escort of fifty Nez Perces and reached Fort Walla- Walla let of .January, 
1848. Mr. Ogden, by almost sni)erhuman efibrts, had succeeded in ransoming all the 
captives at .Waiilatpu, souie sixty who had been brought in the day before. The next 
day he embarked with all on board of three boats for Oregon City, and delivered us 
all safe to the governor on the 12th of .January. 

HORACE HEART. 

Territory of Washington, Coiinti/ of Washington: 

Subscribed and sworn to before me at my office, this 18th day of August, 1865. In 
testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and the seal of the district court of 
the first judicial district of Washington Territorv. 

B. F. SEXTON, 

Clerk District Court. 

State of Oregon, County of Marion, ss: 

I have read the statements of Mr. Heart. I was present on the occasion, and 
believe them to be true. 

MARY CLYMER. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 14th day of December, 1868, at my office 
at Salem, Oregon. Witness mv hand and seal. 

R. ('. GEER, 
Clerk Conntii Marion, State of Orefjori. 

Dayton, Oregon, March 2, 1852. 

Having any regard for the safety of yourself and family, nothing could have 
induced you to neglect the opportunity afforded by Mr. Ogden, by which you were 
all taken out of the country. 

A refusal, on your part, to have left at that time would have been regarded as a 
mark of insanity. " ^ There were two things lacking on your part to 

render your stay safe in the country, to wit, a British subject or a member of the 
Catholic Church. 

.JOEL PALMER. 

Rev. H. H. Spalding. 

It also appears very clear by the accumulated evidence in the case that the Protest- 
ant missionaries amtmg the Nez Perces and other tribes of the interior were compelled 
from the sauie cause to abandon their different fields of labor, while the mission.iries 
of the Roman Catholic Church remain in perfect safety among the savages, in the 
immediate vicinity of the scenes of blood and carnage already described. 

BISHOP KINGSLEY, 
Moderator Oregon Conference M. E. Church, 1868. 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 61 

Question. Were not the missionaries — the tew who escaped — forced to leave their 
stations and the country to save themselves and children? 
Auswers. That was so. 

GEORGE ABERNATHY. 
Yes. 

JOEL PALMER. 
Yes. 

J. N. GILBERT. 
Yes. 

P. H. HATCH. 

Question. Were not Mrs. Spalding and her infant children (husband and daughter 
sujiposed to be slain ) taken from her house, on the 4th of December, by the Nez Perces, 
to a point of timber ten miles to the fort, and saved their lives f 
Aniiwers. That is a statement of all Indians and whites. 

WILLIAM GEIGER. 
True, according to abundant proof at that time. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

Question. Was not every American missionary, who escaped, purchased of the 
Indians and taken out of the country by P. S. Ogden, of the Hudson Bay Company, 
and the volunteers ? 

Answers. P. S. Ogden, of the Hudson Bay Company, went up and rescued all that 
were left, and brought them down. 

GEORGE ABERNATHY. 
Yes, they were. 

W. GEIGER. 
Yes, 

Mr. OGELEN, 

Chief Fact. H. B. Co. 
Purchased the captives. 

JOEL PALMER. 

True that Ogden redeemed them. They were held as hostages by the Indians to 
protect themselves against forces they feared might leave the valley and come against 
them. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

Question. And was not the country closed against all the missionaries alike by Gov- 
ernment and the orders served on the Catholic mission and published in the Oregon 
Spectator of July 13, 1848; and was not the act of Congress, confirming the title of 
the mission lands to the respective mission boards, approved August 14 of the same 
year, and while the war continued and while the country remained closed? 

Answer. The missionaries were ordered to leave and were forbidden to return, and 
the order was published, but I do not remember the date. 

GEORGE ABERNATHY. 

I do not remember dates, but it was understood that all missionaries and other 
Americans were prohibited residence in that country. 

JOEL PALMER. 

It was closed against Protestant missionaries, and the act of Congress took place 
while the war lasted and while the country was closed. 

J. N. GILBERT. 
Yes 

P. H. HATCH. 

The country remained closed and the war continued till long after the act of Con- 
gress confirming the title of Lapway mission to the American Board. 

W. GEIGER. 
^Ir. Geiger's statements are correct. 

J. S. GRIFFIN. 

The blood of the Whitman martyrs should have sanctified the equity of the claim. — 
Governor Evans of Olympia. 

And would in the heart of every American who values Oregon or his own honor. 

H. H. SPALDING- 

It was not so understood. It was deemed improper for Mr. Spalding and family to 
remain in that country until quiet was restored. It was not a voluntary abandonment 



62 EARLY LAliURS OF MLsSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

of the mission. We seut troops to escort Rev. Messrs. Eells and Walker out of that 
coiuitrv. 

JOEL PALMER, 
Cominisniouer deneral, Siiptr'niiciident Jndia)i ^iffairs. 

Washington, luhniarij 1, 1871. 
The hold, patriotic, and just action of President Grant iu wresting- the Nez Perces 
nation from the hands of those they have so long regarded their enemies, having, as 
tbey l)elieved, deprived them of their teachers, and giving them back to their old 
friends, receives the approhation of every patriot in the land. It is to be hoped the 
faithful, patriotic dead, who have been placed so long under brand of infamy, will 
be remembered next. 

H. H. SPALDING. 



VII.— RESOLUTIONS IN ANSWER TO EXECUTIVE DOCUMENT NO. 38 OF 
THE THIRTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, 

Passed by live Protestant bodies of Oregon, to wit: D. The Oregon presbytery of 
the United Presbyterian church. C. The < )regou presbytwy of the Cumberland Pres- 
byterian Church. B. The Oregon presbytery of the Reunited Presbyterian Church. 
E. The Congregational Association of Oregon. F. The Oregon annual conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. G. The Pleasant Pute Baptist Church of Oregon. 
H. The Christian Brotherhood of the State of Oregon. I. Resolutions of the Steuben 
presbytery of Presbyterian Church, New York. J. Memorial of the citizens of Steu- 
ben, Alleghany, and Chemung Counties, New York. K. Memorial of the citizens of 
Oberlin, Ohio. 

Doc. B. — T]te Whitman massacre. 

KESOLUTIONS ADOPTED 15Y THE OREGON PRESBYTERY OF THE OLD SCHOOI, PRESBY- 
TERIAN CHURCH. 

The presbytery of Oregon, at its session at Albany, on the .Bth of .June, ISfiO, took 
into coiisideriition certain statements contained iu Ex. Doc. No. HSof the Thirty-tifth 
Congress, containing a repoi't of the Hon. .J. Ross Brown on the Indian war in Oregon 
and Washington Territoi-ies, into which is incorporated a ]iaper prepared by the Rev. 
J. B. A. Brouilette, a Roman Catholic missionary, purporting to give a history of the 
massacre of Marcus Whitman, M. D., and others, at Walla-Walla, in the year 1847. 

The object of the paper appears to be to exculptate the instigators of that tragedy, 
and to ca.st the blame on the victims. 

Thi; truth of history, as well as the character and services of Dr. Whitman and his 
coadjutors, demands a vindication at the hands of those who are familiar with the 
facts; especially since the above-named paper has been published by the authority 
of Congress. 

Prior to the establishment of our national sovereighty over Oregon, (a term then 
apjdied to all our Pacific domain uortli of California,) and while the Hudson Bay 
Company, steadily working in the interest of Great Britian, were allowed to carry on 
their ojierations throughout that vast region, our Government desired to introduce 
settii.'rs and cultivate amii'able relations with the natives. At the same time the 
Christian citizens sought to introduce the gospel, with the arts of civilized life, and 
thus, without any exjjress understanding on the subject, the missionaries came to be 
the best agents of the Government. 

Messrs. Whitman, Spalding, Walker, Eells, Gray, and others, clothed with the official 
protection of Government as citizens, and sent forth by the American Board of Com- 
missioners for Foreign Jlissions, established themselves among tlu' savages atditfei'ent 
points iu ^Middle Oregon in the years 1836 and 1838. Besides ministers of the gospel 
there were teachers, farmers, mechanics, a printer, and physician, 1 )r. Whitman. The 
ladies connected with these missions were well qualilied to assist in promoting the 
sole object for which the entire company had left the enjoyments and i)rotectiou of 
civilized life — the introduction of Christian civilization among the savages. 

During the eleven years which followed, a great, and in many respects very gratify- 
ing improvement was nuide in the condition of the India,us. The patient, laborious, 
andself-denyingexertionsof the missionaries were bearing precious fruit. Agriculture 
and some of the mechanic arts had been acquired by the Indians; education and religion 
were exerting their benign influences, softening the savage disposition and elevating 
their character. The missiou had become an oasis in the desert — the resort of the emi- 
grants to rest and recruit. All the elements of modern civilization were transplanted 
andmany steps of progress taken, notwithstanding the steady opposition and hostility 
which tlie agents of all these improvements had to encounter, and which culminated 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 6S 

in the horrid butcherj'^ at Waiilatpn. The facts pertaining to this tragedy, attesteil by 
survivors, and by military and civil officers who have investigated them, as well as by 
Indians, furnishing a vast array of unimpeachable testimony supported by general con- 
sent, all go to show — 

I. That the massacre was wholly unprovoked by Dr. Whitman or any member of 
the missiou; on the other hand, the atrocity was deepened by the fact that at the 
time of its occurrence the martyrs were devoting their energies to the relief of those 
who were suffering from an epidemic disease then prevailing among the Indians, of 
unusual fatality. 

II. That the causes of the massacre were reducible to two, viz : the purpose of the 
English government or of the Hudson's Bay Company to exclude American settlers 
from the country, and the efforts of the Catholic priests to prevent the introduction of 
education and Protestantism by preventing the settlement of American citizens, and 
that the efforts which both parties made, operating on the ignorant and suspicious 
minds of the savages, led to the butchery in which twenty lives were destroyed and 
the most dreadful sufferings and brutal injuries inflicted on the survivors. 

III. That as incidental proof of the two-fold purpose above specified, American 
emigrants on their way toward the coast, then stopping at the mission premises, fell 
victims to the barbarities alike which were inflicted on the mission company. 

IV. That in consequence of the mas.sacre, not only was Dr. Whitman's mission 
destroyed, but, contrary to the statements of the Thirty-seventh Congress, the Ameri- 
can missionaries among the neighboring triltes of the Spokanes ;ind Nez Perces were 
compelled to abandon their fields of labor, being exposed to the same dangers; while 
the Catholic misionaries remained in perfect safety in the neighborhood of the scene 
of the massacre, mingled freely with the perpetrators of these deeds of horror, per- 
formed rites for the living which could have been jiostponed until they had paid 
decent respect to the martyred dead which lay around them *' prone and discomposed"' 
as they fell, and made no effort to arrest the brutal treatment of female survivors 
reserved for a fate worse than death. 

The notoriety which these atrocities speedily obtained naturally aroused the insti- 
gators to attempts at concealment where secrecy could avail, and at self-defense where 
the facts could bo neither suppressed nor distorted. They have sought to exculpate 
themselves by various ex])edient8, and especially in tlie publication above referred 
to, in which, in the midst of a nmss of trivial matter, the character of Dr. Whitman 
and his associates is traduced, their motives assailed, their actions misrepresented; 
and thus a deliberate attempt is made to stigmatize the fame of men and wouien 
which is far above reproach, and whose services as patriots and philanthropists, 
entitle them to the lasting gratitude of the nation. 

Let it not be forgotten that our republic is indebted to the enlightened patriotism 
of Marcus Whitman, who heroically defied the dangers of a winter's journey across 
the continent, and by the communication of important facts to the Government pre- 
vented the cession of a large portion of our Pacific domain to Great Britain; neither 
let the country forget Whitman's compatriots, who gave their services and their lives 
to create enlightened loyalty in the red man's breast. Their influence, and especially 
the arduous and long-continued labors of Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, secured fidelity and 
devotion to our country among the Nez Perces, the most powerful tribe west of the 
Rocky Mountains. During the Indian wars which followed the Whitman massacre,, 
the Nez Perces were always true, and by their influence over other tribes they often 
saved our frontiers from being drenched in the blood of our citizens, and marked 
with the atrocities of savage warfare. 

Let not the country cast dishonor on uuselfish patriotism. Let not the brand of 
infamy remain on the memory of the just. 

The publication of the allegations above mentioned, by authority of Congress, 
doubtless through one of those inadvertencies whicii sometimes creep into tlie proceed- 
ings of deliberative bodies, calls for ample redress. We therefore unite with all 
patriotic and fair-dealing men in the earnest petition that the Congress of the United 
States should do justice to the memory of the dead, ami protect the rightsof the living. 

Adopted by presbytery. 

, A. L. LINDSLEY, Moderator. 

Attest: E. R. Geary, Slated Clerk. 

Sad and iiiteresiing relics. 

Lying before us is a collection of relics of the earliest work of the Christian mis- 
sionary to plant the standard of his faith on this coast. There is the book of Matthew, 
printed in the Nez Perces language, at the Clear Water mission, in 1845, by M. G. Foisy ^ 
a copy of a small hymn-book, printed in 1842, and a speller and reader, printed in 
1839, and designed for "children and new beginners." In addition to these there is 
a lock of hair, of considerable size, from the head of Mrs. Whitman, who was mur- 
dered by the Indians in 1847, near Walla- Walla. The hair is of silken texture and of 

S. Ex. Doc. 37 5 



64 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 



a bright aiibnin color, iiidicatiug the sauguine tem])eraiueut, with, perhaps, a shade 
of the nervous. These relics are the pioperty of Rev. H. H. Spalding, and it is through 
his kindness that we have been permitted to examine them. 

In looking upon these sa<l mementoes of tlie past, we are carried back in the his- 
tory of the jirogress of civilization to this land of the Occident, to tlie time when 
those heroic spirits, Spalding, Whitman, and their wives, braved the dangers of the 
savage wilderness and unfurled the banner of the Cross three thousand miles from 
home and friends, and when no succor could reach them other than that invoked 
(rom the (iod they worshipped. 

"lu tbe dreary depths of tlie pathless wild 

Where the mournful breezes moan, 
And the stealthy step of the forest child 

Scarce wakes an echo-tone: 
There the Christian chief hath boldly home 

Kedemptiou's blessed sign, 
And the savage weeps o'er the crown of thorn 

Aud the Cross of love divine." 

But we did not commence this article for the purpose of becoming sentimental, but to 
call attention to a great wrong that has been done the memory of those early Christian 
pioneers by the Congress of the United States. We refer to the incorporation of the 
pamphlet published in 1848, by J. B. A. Brouilette, a Catholic priest, in Exectitive Doc- 
ument No. ;3<S, Tliirty-tifth Congress, 1st session, House of Representatives. This insid- 
ious libel upon those devoted Christian martyrs was ingeniously palmed upon the De- 
partment of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Indian affairs, by J. Ross Browne, 
who, in 1857, visited this coastas special agent for those Departments. Brouilette wrote 
in the interest of the Roman cause, and could not be expected to give an unprejudiced 
account of the causes which induced the massacre at the Whitman station. But 
Browne being himself a member of the order of Jesuits, took advantage of his position 
in the service of the Government to advance the interest of his Church at the expense 
of the memory of the dead. We say this in no spirit of animosity toward the char- 
acter of the Roman Church, but in vindication of the memory of those who sacrificed 
their lives in the advancement of the cause of republican liberty and Christian civ- 
ilization. There are soldiers in i»eace as well as in war ; aud though no waving plume 
beckons them on to glory and to death, their dying scene is oft a crimson one. They 
fall leading the vanguard of civilization along untrodden wilds, and they are buried 
beneath the dust of its advancing columns. No stcme marks their last resting-place, 
the winds alone sing their requiem, yet they are in truth the meritorious members 
of the re])ublic, and too often their .services 'go unrewarded, and their memory is 
suffered to rot beneath the j)oIluted touch of some designing biographer. 

Rev. H. H. Spalding is the sole survivor of the heroic baud who crossed the con- 
tinent in 1836 under ihe auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions of the New School 
Presbyterian Ciiurch. He feels keenly the wrong that has been done him and those 
whose memory he cherishes. 

The members of our congressional delegation will be earnestly memorialized to 
secure some action of Congress that will place on record a refutation of the slander 
that has been ])ermitted to go forth under its seal aud sanction. The highest eccle- 
siastical authority of every Protestant denomination in the State either has or will 
soon add their voices against the prejudicial statements of the priest Brouilette, who 
evidently wrote in the most malicious spirit. As to J. Ross Browne, he richly de- 
serves to be held up to the scorn and contempt of every honest man for suffering 
himself to lie made the mouth-piece for trumpeting forth a gross aud malicious 
calumny against the most self-sacrilicing baud of Christian pioneers that ever braved 
the dangers of a pagan wilderness. 

Doc. F. — Beport of the Committee on Frotestantism in Oref/on. 

The committee of investigation in relation to Protestantism in Oregon, as set forth 
in Executive Document No. 38 of the Thirty-fifth Congress of the United States, 
House of Representatives, would resjicctfully report: 

That they have, as far as circumstaufces would permit, carefully exauuned the subject 
committed to them in connection with said document, and find that in 1857 the Com- 
missioner of Indian Afi'airs and the Treasury Department of Washington appointed 
,]. Ross Browne a special agent on the sul)ject of the Indian war in Oregon, which be- 
gan in the massacre by the Indians of Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife, and 18 others, 
in the fall of 1847; that in pursuance of the object of his ap])ointment said J. Ross 
Browne prepared and transnutted a report to the Connuissionerof Indian Affairs. That 
said report comprehc^nds 66 pages of said congressional docnment, while but 12 pages 
are composed of matter prepared by said Browne; the renuiinder, 54 pages, consisting 
of what was first published in a Roman Catholic newspaper in .^ew York City, aud 
afterward issued as a pamphlet, and sent to the world, over the signature of a .lesuit 
priest" liy the name of Brouilette. This pamphlet, constituting so large a part of 
Browne's report and sent abroad over the laud, purports to give a true history of the 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 65 

missions uuder the patronage of the American Board on this coast, which were broken 
up and destroyed by the massacre above mentioned. 

The object of Brouilette's pamphlet appears to be to exculpate the real instigators 
of that terrible tragedy, and cast the blame upon the Protestant missionaries them- 
selves, who were tlie victims of the bloody aftray. 

Your committee believe themselves possessed of the most abundant testimony, both 
from civil and military officers of the United States, and from many other citizens of 
the most reliable credibility, that the portion of Browne's report for which he is in- 
debted to the Jesuit priest is full of the most glaring and infamous falsehoods, which 
renders it unworthy the confidence of every man, and is artfully calculated to mislead 
the public mind in regard to the whole transaction, and to cast the most unjust and 
cruel reflections upon the characters of those devoted missionaries of the American 
Board, who were faithfully laboring at that time among the Cayuses at Waiilatpu, 
and the Nez Perces. 

If the above-named paper had been published simply upon individual responsi- 
bility, there would, even then, have been some occasion for the lovers of truth and 
justice to takes measures to destroy its influence; but in this case the shameful libel 
has been sent abroad by the authority of the Congress of the United States, and the 
truth of history, as well as the character of the insulted and injured, demands of all 
those who have any knowledge of the facts a full and thorough vindication. 

It was in 1884 that a Christian church of the United States sought first to introduce 
into the Territory of Oregon (a title then applied to all our Pacific domain north of 
California) Christianity and the arts of civilized life. At that time unbroken hea- 
thenism prevailed throughout this vast country; but in Sejitember of that year four 
Christian men, wearied and weather-beaten by thousands of miles of journeying over 
trackless wilds, might have be^n seen erecting their tents on the banks of the beauti- 
ful Willamette, and with their Bibles, their hymn-books, and their axes, striking the 
first blows for (Christianity and civilization on the great Pacific slope. In any exhi- 
bition of historic truth in relation to religion and civilization on the Pacific shores, 
the names of the intrepid .Jason Lee and liis companions must always hold the most 
important place. Thus commencing the work, we find.that six years afterward there 
had a company of missionaries collected in Lower or Western Oregon, under the pat- 
ronage of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of 67 ])er8ons, 
a number nearly e([ual to that of the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock, just 
249 years before, and laid the foundations of a mighty empire. 

The Lees were followed in 1837 by Messrs. Whitman, Spalding, and Gray, and soon 
a,fter by Rev. Messrs. Walker, and Elles, and others, accompanied by teachers, farmers, 
mechanics, a printer, and a physician. With this company were the first white ladies, 
Mrs. Marcus Whitman and Mrs. H. H. Spalding, that ever crossed the Rocky Moun- 
tains. This Christian colony, numbering but little less than twenty persons, were 
under the patronage of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 
and were all well qualified to promote the sole object for which they had left all the 
enjoyments and protection of civilized life, the introduction of Christian civilization 
among the savages of the interior of Oregon. 

And thus in respect to both the colonies described, and without any ex]>ress under- 
standing on the subject, the missionaries themselves came to be the best agents of 
the Government in promoting the population of the country. 

We find that the latter company of missionaries established themselves among the 
savages at difierent points in the interior. Dr. Marcus Whitman on the Walla-Walla at 
Waiilatpu, Rev. H. H. Spalding at Lapwai on the Clear Water, and the remainder 
at points in the valley of the great Columbia, where their labors were most needed. 
Applying themselves with great diligence and constancy to their work, it was soon 
apparentthat their laborious, trying, and self-denying exertions in behalf of the red 
man were not in vain. A knowledge of agriculture and the mechanic arts had been 
acquired by many of them, and by the untiring assiduity of Mr. and Mrs. Spalding the 
Indian language had been reduced to a system, and books to some extent had been 
put into their hands, and education and religion were exerting their benign influ- 
ence, softening the savage disposition, and moulding and elevating their character. 

Thus these indefatigable missionaries labored on for eleven long years, witnessing 
the ripening fruits already resulting from their efi^orts, in the rapid progress which the 
objects of their love and solicitude were making in almost everything pertaining to 
modern civilization ; and all this, notwithstanding the subtle and unrelenting hostility 
which they had to encounter from the enemies of American interests in the country, 
but especially from the Jesuit emissaries of Rome. This opposition l)ecame more and 
more apparent as the evidences of the success of the missionaries became more and 
more manifest and satisfactory, till at length, in the fall of 1847, it culminated in one 
of the most fearful and horrid tragedies that the human mind can possibly imagine. 
Dr. Whitman, whose every energy had been consecrated to the elevation and well- 
being of the Indian race, his accomplished wife, who hesitated not to exchange the 
luxuries of wealth and refinement for exposure and toil and suffering in a heathen 



66 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

land, and eigbteeu other persons, while in the midst of fancied seenrity, were butch- 
ered in cold blood. Women whose husbands lay welterinj; in <;ore, and young hi dies 
whose brothers had fallen victims to savage barbarity, wore dragged away from the 
bleeding and lifeless forms of their friends and subjected to a fate even worse than 
death itself; and many children were taken into captivity, where they remained 
until they were relieved by ransom. This terrible tragedy occurred at Waiilatpu, 
on the Walla-Walla River, and the facts pertaining to it, which are fully attested by 
an array of evidence sufbcieut to place them beyond the possibility of a doubt, all 
go to ])rove the following points: 

I. That the massacre was wholly unprovoked by Dr. Whitman, or any other mem- 
ber or members of the mission ; while, on the other hand, the victims themselves 
were employed at the very time they were attacked in relieving the sufferings of the 
Indians arising from the prevalence of an epidemical disorder of unusual fatality. 

II. That the true causes of the massacre may be found in the policy and course 
pursued by the Hudson's Bay Company, which was an embodiment of the British 
government at that time in the country, to exclude American settlers from the land, 
and the efforts of Roman priests directed against the establishment of Protestantism 
in the country, which they hoped to accomplish by preventing its settlement by 
American citizens. These two things, a knowledge of which was possessed by the 
savages, operated u])on their dark, suspicious minds, and excited them, doubtlessly, 
to perpetrate the horrid butchery, and to intlict ujjon the survivors the most inde- 
scribable brutalities. 

III. That the objects sought by these atrocities were as above stated appears very 
clear, from the fact that immigrants on their way to the lower country, then resting 
a season at the premises, shared the same fate tliat fell upon the missionaries. Fur- 
thermore, the massacre was entirely confined to American Protestants; the Catholics 
on and about the premises walked unhurt amidst the slaughter, and Brouilette him- 
self came to the spot before the ground had drank tlie blood of the victims, and 
while yet the mangled bodies remained uuburied, baptized the Indians amidst the 
general desolation which his own machinations had contributed to effect. 

IV. It also a])pears very clear by the accumulated testimony in the case, that not 
only was the mission at Waiilatpu broken up and destroyed by the massacre, but all 
the Protestant missionaries among the Nez Perces and other tribes of the interior were 
compelled, from the same cause, to abandon their different fields, wliile the mission- 
aries of the Roman Church remained in perfect security among the tribes, and in the 
immetliate vicinity of the scenes of blood and carnage already described. These as- 
tounding atrocities being made puldic, and the evidence of tlieir true origin becom- 
ing more and more apparent, it was natural for the instigators of the horrid crime to 
endeavor to exculpate themselves; and, in order to do this, they must fasten it upon 
some other persons, and hence the publication of the pamphlet alluded to, in which the 
author in every possible way attem])ts to stigmatize and traduce the character of Whit- 
man and Spalding, and their heroic, devoted and estimable wives, whose noble deeds 
of Christian patriotism entitle them to the lasting gratitude of the entire country. 

It now ai)pears quite certain, by the testimony which has come to hand, that Browne 
himself, as well as Brouilette, wrote in the interests of the Roman Church, for on 
this ground only can it api)ear at all reasonable that he would have incorporated 
into his report so false a i>voduction as that of which it is affirmed in the Congres- 
sional document under consideration, that " it will form an interesting and authen- 
tic chapter in the history of the Protestant missions." In this character, Browne, 
acting on the princix)le that lies at the basis of all .lesuitical ethics, that "the end 
justifies the means,'' took ad\antage of his position as an officer of the (iovernmeut 
to advance the interests of Romanism by covering with oblo(|uy the memory of those 
who sacrificed their lives for the })romotion of republican liberty and Christian civ- 
ilization; and of utterly destroying the character of the only survivor of the heroic 
band who constituted the second section of the vanguard of civilization, and who 
were the first to plant the seeds of puie Christianity in eastern Oregon. We here 
refer to Rev. H. H. Spalding, whose arduous and long-continued labors, with those 
of his devoted wife, resulted in securing the fidelity of the Nez Perces, the most pow- 
erful tribe of Indians on the western slope, to American interests, so that in all the 
Indian wars which have followed the \\ hitman massacre, thf^y have, with few excep- 
tions, always remained true, and by their influence and ))Ower have often prevented 
the desolations of savage warfare from sweeping over the white; settlements of the 
country. Under the teachings of these devoted servants of the red race, the Nez 
Perces were so bound to American interests and to Protestant Christianity that no 
hostile tribes nor Roman emissaries have ever been able to draw them away from 
their friendship and allegiance; and though, by the unwise jiolicy of (Government 
officials, they have been deprived of the presence and council of their beloved mis- 
sionary for many long years, yet most of them still stand firm in their religion, and 
remain the most uncompromising friends of the American people. 

With these facts before us, wewould unite with all lovers of truth and justice in 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 67 

earnestly petitioning the Congress of the United States, as far as possible, to rectify the 
evils which have resulted from the publication as a congressional document of the 
slanders of J. Ross Browne; and thus lift the cloud of darkness that hangs over 
the memory of the righteous dead, and extend equal justice to those who survive. 

C. KINGSLEY, 

3Ioderaio7'. 
GUSTAVUS HINES, 
I. D. DRIVER, 
A. F. WALLER, 
JOHN SPENCER, 
H. K. HIXES, 
J. H. WILBUR, 
Members of the Committee. 

Resolutions of the Oregon preshytery of the Cumierland Preshyterian Church. 

1. Whereas a pamphlet has recently appeared in our midst entitled "Protestantism 
in Oregon,'' published by one J. B. A. Brouilette, a priest of the sect of Rome, dated at 
New York, 1853, and purporting to contain a detailed account of the Whitman massacre 
and its causes. 

2. And whereas the said pamphlet contains many statements reflecting great dis- 
credit upon the early Protestant missionaries in Oregon, and particularly upon the 
lamented Dr. Whitman, Rev. H. H. Spalding, and their sainted wives. 

3. And whereas it is attempted to be shown, in said pamphlet, that the massacre of 
the Whitman family and others was the result of the improper bearing of Dr. Whit- 
man and Rev. H. H. Spalding among the Indians. 

4. And whereas, to our astonishment, we find said pamphlet published in Ex. Doc. 
No. 38, Thirty-fifth Congress, 1st session. House of Representatives, accompanying a 
letter from J . Ross Browne, special agent of Treasury Department, to the Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs, dated at San Francisco, December 4, 1857. 

Now, therefore, it is resolved by this presbytery: 

1st. That it is the oiiinion of this presbytery, from a multitude of most reliable tes- 
timony now before us on the subject, that the unfavorable statements, made in the pam- 
phlet referred to in the preceding preamble, concerning the early Protestant mission- 
aries in Oregon, are in the highest- degree false and slanderous. 

2d. That this presbytery regards it not only as a duty, but as an esteemed privilege, 
to express her confidence in the character of the late Dr. Marcus Whitman, possessing, 
in a large degree, the elements of a true Christian character, and native goodness of 
heart, and purity of life. And that to his labors, more than toanyotheroneman, weare 
indebted for preventing what is now the State of Oregon and Territory of Washington 
from falling into the hands of the British Government To render which service to 
our Government and the cause of Protestantism Dr. Whitman performed a journey 
across the continent in midwinter. 

3d. That what has been said of the merits of Dr. Whitman, as a man and a Christian 
of high moral worth, is affirmed; also, and with equal pleasure, of Rev. H. H. Spald- 
ing, who, in the order of a kind Providence, is now spending the evening of his life in 
our midst, happily surrounded by his children and his children's children. 

And further, it affords us great pleasure to indorse what has been often aflirmed by 
others, that Rev. H. H. Spalding and his amiable and accomplished wife, now in 
heaven, have done more through their labors, as missionaries, to civilize and Christian- 
ize the Nez Perces tribe of Indians than the Government has ever been able to accom- 
plish by an outlay of vast sums of money. And further, that to their influence is 
mainly attributed the steadfast friendship of the Nez Perces, under all circumstances, 
to the white population, even when all the surrounding tribes — under Roman influ- 
ence — were at war with the American people. 

4th. That, from what is regarded as evidence of the most reliable character, this 
presbytery is fully convinced that the Roman clergy, then occupying the country, 
were the principal instigators of the Whitman tragedj'. 

W. R. BISHOP, Moderator. 

C. A. WooLEY, Clerk. 

Doc. C. — Ilesolntions adopted by the Conrjrefjational Association of Oregon at themeeting in 

Salem, June, 1869. 

Your committee, to whom was referred Executive Document No. 38, of the Thirty- 
fifth Congress, first session. House of Representatives, respectfully report: 

That they have carefully exanuned snid document, and to their surprise find that 
(while published under the authority of the Congress of the United States, as though 
a report of J. Ross Browne) it contains only twelve pages of matter prepared by said 
Browne, and fifty-three other pages, consisting of matter first published in a Roman 



68 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

Catholic newspaper in New York city, and afterward issued as a pamphlet prepared 
by a Jesuit priest by the uame of Hrouilette. This pamphlet purports to give a true 
account of the Protestant missions involved in the Indian massacre of 1847, in which 
Dr. Whitman and nineteen others lost their lives, and the missions were broken up. 

Your committee hnd from overwhelming evidence, from the testimony of different 
United States ofiticers, civil and military, and from other citizens of most reliable 
credibility, that this portion of said congressional document involved in it so many 
prominent and absolute falsehoods as to give a most erroneous impression to the 
whole, and to cast most fallacious and infamous reflections upon the characters of the 
devoted and faithful missionaries of the American Board there laboring at that time. 

It jiositively appears that this Jesuit priest (Brouilette) was, as he himself admits, 
present auiong the Indians at the time of the massacre, and at the very place, and was 
actually baptizing tlie children of the murdering Indians while the outrage was going 
on, and in the presence of unburied bodies of the victims, and in hearing of the 
screams of the suffering prisoners. That Roman Catholic priests did carry arms and 
ammunition to the hostile Indians, and that when Captain Rogers intercepted this 
ammunition at the Dalles the priests did vigorouslj- threaten that all the Catholic 
Indian ti'ibes, French and Hudson's Bay men would attack the little garrison and settle- 
ments if he dared to take the arms and ammunition. 

Your committee believe, from evidence clear and sufflcient to them, that the Roman 
Catholic priests did themselves instigate violence to the missions resulting in the 
massacre ; and that this pamphlet, so most strangely published by Congress, with no 
rebutting statements accompanying it, was prepared by them to throw the blame of 
the massacre upon the American missionaries. 

Your committee conclude by presenting for your adoption the following resolutions : 

Resolved, That as members of the Congregational Association of Oregon, and long 
acquainted with the surviving members of the Oregon Mission of the American Board, 
we believe them to have been, and to be, persons of verarity and of sincere Christian 
devotion and of unquestionable benev^olence in their labors to civilize and Christianize 
the Indian tribes. 

liesolvi'd, That their labors I'edounded immensely to the promotion of all American 
interests on this coast, if not indeed to the preservation of the country to the Ameri- 
can Union. 

Resolved, That we learn with great satisfaction that the Rev. H. H. Spalding has 
collected authentic documents for a truthful history of the whole matter, conclusively 
refuting the foul statements of the Jesuits. 

Resolved, That we respectfully ask of Congress that, as this erroneous pam])hlet of a 
foreign emissary of the Pope of Rome has, under their sanction, been given to the 
world, so a candid and truthful account of the matter thus treated of, wliich is now 
being prepared by an able committee of reliable American citizens, may also be pub- 
lished under their sanction in a lil^e congressional document. 

Resolved, That from acquaintance with facts for the last twenty years, and other 
clear evidence, we believe that the missionaries, contrary to the statements made by 
Congress, did not abandon the mission at Lapwai, but were first forced away by the 
war, and that those who have since been anxious to return have been steadily ex- 
cluded by Government ofticials. even to having their houses pulled down, and the 
agents of the board threatened with violence if they persisted. 

0. DICKENSON, 

1. V. BLAKESLEE, 
ELKANAH WALKER, Committee. 
G. H. ATKINSON, 

Moderator of ()ve()OH AssocUiiio)!. 
Attest: Chester N. Tei^ky, 

Clerk of Congregational Association of Oregon. 

Doc. D. — Resolutions adopted hy the Oregon Presbytery of the United Preshyterian Church 
at their meeting in Linn County, in 1868 and 1869. 

We, the ministers and ruling elders of the Oregon Presbytery of the United Presby- 
terian Church, some of us being residents of Oregon at the tinu' of the Whitman mas- 
sacre, agree upon the following expressions of opinion, to wit: 

1st. Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, and Rev. II. H. Spalding and wife, for their 
Christian zeal, devotedness, and unyielding perseverance through fearful hazards and 
long-continued hardships for mouths during their journey over the Rocky Mountains, 
across the continent, on horseback and without bread, where the foot of white woman 
had never trod, to establish the kingdom of truth, and plant the tree of civiliza- 
tion on these then dark shores of jiaganism, amid privations of self denial most fear- 
ful; 1^,000 miles from home and friends, and where no succor could reach them, other 
than that invoked from the God they worshijied, are entitled to the respect, esteem, 
love and sympathy, both in regard to those yet livir.g and the memory of the dead, of 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 69 

the eutire Christian church, in all its various denominations, not only in Oregon, but 
throughout the whole world. 

2d. The tribes among whom they located in 1836 were in a state of entire wildness 
and savageism, starving on a meager supply of roots, tish and game ; not a foot of land 
in cultivation ; not a hoe, plow or cow ; without a knowledge of hitters, of the Sabbath, 
or human salvation. 

3d. That this wild wilderness should so soon be changed, "the desert to bud and blos- 
som," the fields to wave with grain — from 15,000 to 2 t,000 bushels of grain harvested 
yearly by the Nez Perces tribe, among whom Mr. Spalding and his amiable wife loca- 
ted; orchards and gardens planted, cattle roaming in bands, schools established, in 
which from 100 to 500 souls were in daily attendance, women spinning and weaving, 
over 100 adoring the Christian faith, churches organized, family altars erected, the 
language reduced to a written state, portions of God's word translated and printed — 
the only instance on the Pacific coast — speak volumes for the fidelity and efbcieucy of 
those faithful servants of Jesus Christ, and evince the presence of God's Spirit among 
them, while it places them, in the minds of every candid thinker, above the imputa- 
tion of being influenced by low, selfish, and worldly motives. 

4th. As proof of the above we might refer to the present superior intelligence, enter- 
prise, and good order which distinguished the Nez Perces tribe from the surrounding 
tribes ; as also to a great amount of testimony now before us from George Aberuathy, 
es(|., then governor of the Territory of Oregon ; from Commodore Wilks, an eye-wit- 
ness in 1841; from Rev. G. Hines, in 1843; from GeneralJoel Palmer, in 1846, 1847, and 
1848; from Colonels Steptoe, Alvord, Cornelius, Agent Anderson, Governor Daniels, 
and scores of our citizens, civil and military officers, miners and travelers of most 
reliable character, all bear unilbrm testimony to the above declarations. 

5th. The strong alliance and unwavering friendship of the Nez Perces to the Ameri- 
cans, while all the surrounding tribes have been at times hostile and repeatedly in 
arms against the United States; and when, in 1848, had they joined the combined 
tribes under the Roman priests, the last American family on this coast would have 
been cut off", as testifies Governor Aberuathy before the committee. And when again, 
in 18.56, all the tribes on this Northwest coast were combined against the Americans, 
except the Nez Perces, as testifies Colonel Cornelius to the same committee, under the 
priests, had the Nez Perces joined them, if the American settlements had not been 
annihilated they would have been involved in a most disastrous and expensive war — 
their constant friendship being fairly, by abundant testimony before us, attributal)le 
to the instructions and influence of Mr. Spalding and his sainted wife, now in 
heaven — render them worthy the most favorable considerations of the American Gov- 
ernment, rather than the foul and libelous slanders which they are sending forth to 
the world in their executive documents. 

6th. In demonstrating the practicability of an overland route connecting the eastern 
and western slopes of the North American continent for families, herds, and wagons, 
Mrs. Spalding and Mrs. Whitman being the first white women who, in obedience to 
their Lord, had the Christian courage to turn their backs upon weeping parents and 
the civilized world, and face the hazards and unknown dangers of this then great and 
terrible wilderne.s8, where so many stout men had perished, and pronounced impossible 
for a white woman. In the encouragement and aid given by them to the weary, way- 
worn emigrants to this western wilderness, in the influence they exerted in sustaining 
the just claimsof our Government to the vast field embraced in thedispute, and thereby 
thwarting the schemes of intriguing European diph)matists, these pioneer mission- 
aries, both overland and by sea, are entitled to gratitude from every American citizen. 

7th. It is our delibei-ate conviction that the Lapwai mission belongs to the Amer- 
ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, as the mission home of our Brother 
Spalding. 1st. By the lawful permit of the American Government now before us, 
dated War Department, Marcli, 1836, for the said board, in the person of Rev. H. H. 
Spalding and family, to enter and settle in said Nez Perces country as a teacher and 
missionary. 2d. By contract of said tribe in council, November, 1836. 3d. By eleven 
years' residence, and until forced away. 4th. By the acts of Congress in 1848, and 
in 18.52, both of which confirm the title of the land to the American Board. And Ave 
heartily concur in the opinions set forth by his excellency Governor Abernathy, by 
General Palmer, by Colonel Cornelius, and by some 600 of the best citizens of our 
State, in a memorial to our government praying that they may be allowed to renew 
the work of Protestant missions at the old Lapwai station, which prayer, though 
renewed for three years, has been steadily refused. That the interests of the Gov- 
ernment and of the tribe would be better subserved bj^ the appointment of Mr, 
Spalding there than by any other man. 

8th. We heartily concur in the aT)Ove named memorial, in which every religious body 
in the State has concurred so far as there has been opportunity, as also the citizens of 
Oregon and Washington, numbering 600 or more, irrespective of party or religious 
sects, including the very best citizens and most of the officers, civil and military, both 
of the present date and of former years, to wit : Mr. Anderson, for several years agent 



70 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

of the Nez Perces, does not, ii) our opinion, exaggerate in saying that the friendly 
relations always maintained by the Nez Perces with the Americans is in a great 
measure to be attributed to the teachings of Mr. Spalding, and that in his ojiinion 
Mr. Spalding, by his own personal labors, has accomplished more good to this tribe 
than all the money expended by Government has been able to effect. 

Uth. The plea of voluntary abandonment of the Lapwai mission December, 1847, by 
the missionaries, as put forth by the Thirty-seventh Congress, is simply absurd. Ore- 
gon history of that date, and the testimony of the governor, the officers of the Army, 
and most of the citizens, show conclusively that Mrs. Spalding, the only missionary at 
Lapwai at that date, being one of eight days of the bloody carnage, her husband and 
daughter sup]iosed to be among the slain, and her three infant children were barely 
delivered from the tomahawk of the savage Indians, by her faithful Nez Perces, and 
taken that 4th of December, 1847, to a point of salety in the timber. This is called 
by a Christian Congress '-voluntary abandonment;'" and that after Mr. Spalding was 
brought in, more dead than alive, from lacerated bare feet on ice, and prickly pear, 
cut rocks, freezing, want of sleep, and starving six days and nights, himself and fam- 
ily ; the other fifty-two women and children prisoners, including the last American 
in the country, were redeemed by P. S. Ogdeu, of the Hudson's Bay Company, by pay- 
ing the Indians $1,000 ; were taken out of the country, tlie long wars commenced, and 
the country was closed by Government against all viissioiiaries, and remained closed 
till 1858. And it i^ well known and proved that so soon as it was thought safe Brother 
Spalding attempted to return, but was forbidden, and that when he did and opened 
his schools among his old people, who were rejoiced to see him, and at once tilled up 
church and school-room, as testified by Agent Anderson, these were broken up and 
himself forced from his old home, his orchards, buildings, his people and his native 
church, of nearly thirty years' pastorate, by Government officials. 

10th. We are decided, in our coinictions that the Nez Perces are the people among 
whom Mr. Spalding, as missionary and minister, should be allowed to labor. His 
lolig residence, his perfect knowledge of their language — no other person can preach 
it — the mutual attachment existing between himself and them ; their strong and oft- 
repeated desire for his return ; his unquenchable ardor to labor and die among them ; his 
former great, perhaps unparalleled success, together with other kindred cfualitica- 
tions, eminently tit him for missionary service among that people. The heroic cour- 
age of himself and wife displayed through that long, most hazardous and tedious 
journey to reach their field o.f labor; their great service to their country; the sacred 
associations of the place, being the birth-place of all his children, and where he and 
his companion spent the best part of their lives, and where they often witnessed the 
display of God's converting grace, consecrating that land to Christ and to liberty 
with their prayers, their sweat, and tlieir blood, all present Brother Spalding's claim 
to the Lapwai mission as morally just and beyond dispute. 

nth. We believe it was through the efforts of the early missionaries to this coun- 
try that it was thrown open to and settled by the citizens of the United States, and 
that in a, special degree are we indebted to the late martyred Whitman, whose pres- 
ence in Washington City in March, 1843, through severe winter suffei'ings, very 
opportunely prevented the consummation of a transfer of Oregon to England. 

12th. From personal knowledge and overwhelming testimony, we are convinced 
that Romanism and British inliuence were the main causes of the Whitman massacre, 
the wars that followed, the prosecuting and banishing from tlie country the Protes- 
tant missionaries, destroying their property and imperiling their health and lives. 
Romanism has, we are ))er8naded, with a bitterness unparalleled except in the ])a8t 
history of its own bloody acts, attempted, in every way possible to them, the utter 
subversion of Protestantism in Oregon. 

13th. From our knowledge of Ex-Governor Abernathy, General Palmer, and Hon. 
A. Hinman, we say without hesitation that we believe them to be men of integrity 
and veracity, above suspicion, and that consequently the testimony collected from 
them by Rev. H. II. S])alding may be implicitly relied upon. 

While Romanism in its senility is showing signs of its speedy dissolution, we unite 
in sympathy with Brother Spalding and all other Piotestants throughout the laud 
who are now or who have been suffering under their unhallowed inliuence. We 
heartily unite with them before God's bar in prayer, that the days of the man of sin 
may soon be numbered. 

JAMES DICK, 
Moderator of Preshiitery. 

T. S. Kendall, 

Cleric of I'reshyfcni, 

T. S. KENDALL, 
J. McCOY, 

Committee. 

[Resolutions similar to the above were passed by the Cumberland Presbytery and 
by the Congregational Association of Oregon.] 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARrES IN OREGON. 71 

Doc. G. — Resolutions adopted by the Pleasant Butte Baptist Clmreli of Linn County, Oregon, 

October 22, 1869. 

Whereas our Aniericau Congress have, with apparent good intentions and with all 
earnestness, felt themselves called upon to undertake the censorship of the Protestant 
Church; and whereas they have published by their vote and sanction a pamphlet 
entitled "Executive Document No. 38, House of Representatives, Thirty-lifth Con- 
gress, first session," thus giving to it the authority and sanction both of the House 
of Representatives and the Executive. 

This executive documeut contains a report of the Hon. J. Ross Browne, special 
agent of the Government to the Pacific coast, and founded, as Browne says, only 
"on reliable historical data." 

But this so-called report of the agent, of 66 pages, with the exception of a short 
preface of 12 pages by the agent, was written years before by a .Jesuit from the 
Pacific coast, and published in a Romish newpaper in New York, and appears now 
in this "executive document," word for word, constituting the report of Browne and 
receiving the sanction of Congress. 

This document, under the remarkable heading " Protestantism in Oregon," con- 
tains this significant language : "These pages will form an interesting and authentic 
chapter in tlie history of Protestant missions." 

This congressional "chapter" on " Protestant missions" purports to give a record of 
the testimony and the trial of "Protestantism in Oregon," in the persons of four of 
r)regon's early pioneers and missionaries, for very high crimes and misdemeanors, and 
among them the highest crimes known to mortals, that of high treason against the 
Captain of human salvation, by assuming the character of Christian teachers before the 
Christian Church, obtaining their funds, making great pledges to the natives of yearly 
ships loaded with goods to be given, not sold, to the Indians, of great sums for their 
lands, but steadily breaking all these pledges, refusing to give or pay the price fixed, 
or to teach or to aid the Indians to anything "unless paid a high price," but " per- 
sisted to stay" and proceeded to rob the natives of "their horses, cattle, and grain;" 
"imported ])oi8on from the States" to "poison the Indians" to "obtain their spotted 
horses and lands;" incited massacres and wars with a view "to exterminate the set- 
tlements;" and alongside of these crimes is given in this executive document a cata- 
logue of the virtues and glowing deeds of Romanism in Oregon among the natives, and 
in their multiplied labors to aid the early American settlements, and especially their 
timely and self-sacrificing efforts, even " at the risk of their lives," to stay the bloody 
massacre invoked at Waiilat|)u by the Protestant missionaries, and to deliver the 
missionaries and to "redeem the captive American women and children." 

And thus, in ofl'ering this executive document as a chapter on Protestant missions, 
Congress has felt constrained to throw down the gauntlet and have fairly forced upon 
us, Protestants of Oregon, the challenge to compare the record of "Protestantism in 
Oregon" with the record of "Romanism in Oregon:" Therefore, 

Resolved, As Oregonians aud as Protestants, we accept the challenge, with all defer- 
ence to our Executive and the House of Representatives, and proceed at once to the 
comparison by reviewing the records of l)oth Protestantism and of Romanism in Ore- 
gon ; and in doing so we shall also rely " only upon reliable historic data," a history 
known and read of all men, and written upon the ground, and not in the dark cells of 
New York, 3,000 miles away, and with hands at the moment dripping with the blood 
of Protestants and of American mothers and infants, butchered by their instigation. 

2. Resolved, That we reject, with unutterable mortification as Americans, and deep 
detestation as Protestants, this chapter on Protestant missions, which our American 
Congress has prepared at such great labor, and sent forth at public expense, on the 
wheels of the Post Office Department, and for the following reason^, to wit : 

I. Because it breathes the most malignant bitterness against the Protestant 
Church, and was manifestly pul)lished for the benefit of the Romish hierarchy, and to 
exculpate a band of the most atrocious butcherers of American fathers, mothers, and 
infants, and designed, whether by Congress or not, certainly by Rome, as a club in 
the hands of Congress against Protestantism. 

II. Because it is a libel on Oregon'shistory and a gross and most malicious calumny 
against the most self-sacrificing band of patriots and Christian pioneers that ever 
braved the dangers of a pagan wilderness. 

III. Because that, from personal knowledge, some of us being in the country at the 
time, and from a vast array of testimony now before us, from old Oregonians, from eye- 
witnesses, from the captives, from military and civil officers, we are convinced that 
it was the Romish clergy and British agents who instigated the Whitman massacre, 
in which Dr. Whitman, his amiable wife, Mrs. Spalding, and seventeen othei's. mostly 
American emigrants stopping to winter and recruit, lost their lives, and the most 
brutal atrocities practiced iipon female captives reserved for a fate worse than death, 
the Protestant missions broken up, the last American forced to leave Middle Oregon, 
and the country involved in the long and most disastrous Indian wars. 



72 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

IV. Because the " executive docimient," or so-called chapter on Protestant mission, 
was written by one of the principal instigators of that most horrible bntchery, a Jesuit 
by the name of J. H. A. Broiiilette, the vicar-general of the I'acitic coast, andpnblished 
in the Freeman's Jonrnal, New York, a paper that has always proclained its hatred of 
Protestantism and our free schools and free press. From abundant testimony he, this 
vicar-general, was on the ground at Waiilat])n during the horrible bntchery, which 
lasted eight days, with his bishop and thirteen ])riest8, direct from Europe, cam]»edat 
helping clistance around, and with one of his overland party, an educated Indian fiom 
Canada, standing at the window by the doctor's head, to iiive the signal for the toma- 
hawking to commence; who shot Mrs. Whitman through the breast, and with his own 
hands butchered Hoffmaii and two other Americans, and who told the Caynses and 
Oregon Indians that he had seen, before he left the States, the letters of Mrs. Whit- 
man and Mr. Si)alding, calling for poison, to come by the emigrants, to kill the 
Cayuses and Nez Perces; that it was a (luestion of life or death with them — they 
must destroy the Americans while few or be destroyed ; he would help them, and the 
bishop and the vicar- general, who had just come o\('r Irom the Pope, their great 
father, would furnish plenty of ammunition from the English post. 

This Brouiletle, to remove all doubt from the uiinds of the < Megan Indians as to his 
abhorrence of Americans, and as paij doirn for butcheriug the heretics, actually jiro- 
ceeded to baptize the blood-stained children of the butchering savages, while the 
bntchery was going on and the unbnried dead and gaspiug bodies lay about his i'eet, 
hogs and dogs rnnniug aboi^t \\ ith parts in their months, the screams of our ever-to-be- 
pitied young women, writhing in the hands of unrestrained brutality, his church- 
music; and who, with his bishop and associates, handed over with their own hands 
our young, liclpless girls to be brutalized before their eyes, and turned our escaped 
fathers and infants and mothers out of doors, to be scal])ed by the savages; and who, 
when our dear, helpless children and mothers were huddled in a corner, with blood- 
streaming ttonahawks brandished over their heads by the Indian women, crying to 
the chiefs, " Shall we strike?" rushed in among them and took a phial from the doc- 
tor's shelf, holding it up to the excited Indians, cried out through his Canadian 
helper, "Here is the identical poison ; see what your Protestants Whitman and Spald- 
ing were doing; bury this or you are all dead ;" and all this to excite the savages to 
chop our helpless children and mothers to pieces on the spot. 

And who after all this — the last Protestant missionary and Auierican killed or forced 
out of Eastern Oregon, but his hellish hate of Protestantism and Americans not yet suf- 
ficiently gloated — could meditate the horrible butchery and the attendant atrocities 
of the entire American settlements, and for that purpose shipped up the river from 
the English jiost at ^'anconver over four thonsand pounds of powder and balls, and 
boxes of guns for the combined savages, and which were taken from them l)y Lieu- 
tenant Rogers and his little band of faithful Protestants only fifteen miles short of 
the cam]) at Des Chutes, who had boasted only three days before that plenty of 
ammunition was coming Jip by the priests, and then they "would come down and 
scalp Americans and take their women and cattle." 

And these are the Jesuit monsters whose record in Oregon is thus written with 
Protestant blood and the blood of American fathers, and infants, and mothers, who 
receive by vote of the American Congress the copyright to prepare testimony against 
and chapters on Protestant missions, and our House of Representatives are compelled 
to resolve themselves into a publishing-hf)use to publisli the same, an^l the Army 
oiScers into a, corps of colporteurs to circulate them. 

The Brouilette, who could thus help on this horrid butchery of Protestants and 
Americans, could thus revel in female anguish aiid the screauis of scalped ini'ants, 
could thus refuse hel]i to agonized mothers, and could, in cool blood, meditate the 
butchery of the last American family on this coast, not able to meet the overwhelming 
testimony against him, published at the time on the spot, and fearing the just indig- 
nation of the Americans, fied three thousand miles to New York, and, safe in the cells 
of New York inquisition, prepared this paper, composed of forgeries agjxinst the best 
citizens of Oregon, and the most revolting falsehoods against the memory of the 
unfortunate victims he had caused to be butchered, and all to exculpate their guilty 
heads. And while it remained a Romish production by such monsters, no one took 
any notice of it, but, to our utter astonishment, it now appears, word for word, in 
this executive document, and is oflt'ered to us by the American Congress, with an 
audacity that has no parallel in modern history, as "an interesting and authentic 
chapter in the history of Protestant missions;'' but we reject it with becoming Ameri- 
can disdain, and as Protestants of this Pacific West we respectfully advise Congress 
to burn it, to call in every document without delay and burn them. You owe it to 
yourselves, to your country, and to the age. And, 

V. We reject this chapter or record of the court — if trial it is to be regarded, and 
such it will be by a majority of readers — because of the irregular and extraordinary 
mode of getting it up; and — 

1. The so-called court had no iurisdiction in the case. The American Congress is not 



EARLY LABORS OF MLSSIONARIES IN OREGON. 73 

an ecclesiastical body, not even a judicial; but the case is purely religious, beiug 
Protestantism in Oregon. 

2. It had no jurisdiction as to territory. The fourscore and ten crimes as found iu 
the bill of indictment, made out in the walls of the New York inquisition, are set forth 
as committed iu Oregon Territory, but the court sits in the city of Waahiugtou, three 
thousand miles away, thus repeating in this republican commonwealth the fearful 
crimes loudest complained of by the fathers of 1776. 

3. Three of the four individuals brought before the court for trial were dead, and had 
been for years ; fell martyrs to that very Government which is thus tearing open their 
graves secretly iu Oregon and taking their characters off three thousand miles to Wash- 
ington to blacken them iu their pui)lic documents; and the only survivor not notified 
of said intended trial (another breach of the Constitution) consequently had no oppor- 
tunity to confront testimony or to offer testimony, when more than property or lite was 
at stake, (another breach of the Constitution) and the court, even the Congress of the 
United States, refuses to appoint a counsel, which is done in every court of the civil- 
ized world, even for the vilest of criminals, showing the deadly prejudice and bitter- 
ness of the court against the criminal, Protestantism. 

4. There was no jury. Thus, in seven particulars, the fundamental principles of the 
sacred Constitution of the United States are grossly violated in this royal farce. 

5. The character of the testimony which Congress thought all-sufidcieut in this trial 
of " Protestantism in Oregon," and the manner of collecting it, caps the climax. 
Nothing like it iu the history of any court in the civilized world, and fit rather for the 
dark ages of the Spanish inciuisition. Much is forgery outright ; for instance, that of 
General Joel Palmer and honorable Robert Newell is proved to be such by the testi- 
mony of those gentlemen before our committee. By the testimony of these gentle- 
men nine forgeries are detected (perhaps there are ninety nine) in this royal chapter, 
declared under the official and sacred oath of this dignified body to be "founded only 
on reliable historical data."' 

But the manner of collecting the testimony. Not a witness is sworn or even called 
before the court, either in Washington or this country, and not required to state 
what they knew, but simply what they had heard second, fourth, and in some 
instances, eight-handed. 

It seems that this Browne was dignified by the title of special agent of the Treasury 
Department, as a blind, whereas his real business appears to have been to collect 
absurdities and the grossest falsehoods against Protestantism, who straightway 
passed secretly through Oregon without giving the least idea that he was collecting 
testimony with which to enable Congress to try those Protestant women, Mrs. Spald- 
ing and Mrs. Whitman, for the crime of crossing the Rocky Mountains and the conti- 
nent three thousand miles, and of robbing four large tribes of Indians of their horses, 
their cattle, and grain, and lands, and then ])oisouing them all, with the help only 
of their husbands, and passed on to the walls of the New York inquisition and found 
his brother Jesuit Browne, who employed him at once, entered upon the office of sub- 
contractor to collect testimony, and brought out his paper to be received and declared 
by Congress to be "reliable historical data," with the understanding that no oath 
should be required, as almost every word was either forgerj^ upon oldOregonians, or 
the falsehoods and reported sayings of the savages who had been executed, why they 
undertook to exterminate the Americans. Fifteen of the so-called witnesses in this 
strange document are known to have been concerned in that l^loody tragedy. 

Tills whdlethingisa disgrace to Congress, to the Executive, to the American people, 
and the highest possible insult to the Protestent church of the United States. Indeed, 
the most significant and most fearful feature of the whole affair is, not that the super- 
stitious Indians could be made to kill their benefactors ; not that .Tesuite could excite 
savages to butcher the hated heretics, scalp American mothers and infants, and hand 
over with their own hands our young women to be brutalized betbre their eyes; not 
that the Roman priests could undertake to aid the savages by furnishing ammunition 
to burn the infant settlements, butcher its inhabitants, and subject the captive infants 
and mothers to -a fate worse than death; but that this paiper should be off'erd by the 
American Congress, with its solemn sanction, and the seal of the Executive, to the 
Protestant church of these United States as "an interesting and authentic chapter 
in the history of Protestant mission.'" (See page 13.) 

This action of Congress utters a language louder and plainer than words can speak, 
and the more especially since the Thirty-ninth Congress and its Executive have pro- 
claimed in their document one of these faithful missionaries an apostate; that she 
abandoned her field voluntarily ; that the American Board of Missions is no better 
than a band of thieves, and proceeded to sieze their mission lands in Idaho, and to drive 
the board, iu the person of its attorney, oft', by threatening, the title of which had been 
confirmed to that board by three acts of Government, the first bearing date March, 
1836; and since the Thirty-ninth Congress and its Executive have proceeded to force 
the only survivor of these condemned missionaries, in his old age, the first resident 
clergyman on the Pacific coast, from his old home, secured to him by the above-named 



74 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

three acts of Oovernnu'nt, made sacred 1>y the oft displays of God's couverting grace, 
and because the birthplace of all his children and the scene of the best part of his life 
and that of his companion, now in heaven, from his orchard, mills, and farm, from his 
btdoved people, lor whom he and his angel wife left the civilized world long years 
before the Government made footprints on this coast, and from his native church of 
nearly thirty-two years pastorate, and t(ne down his house and threw it into the river ; 
and since the present Congress and Executive continue to keep forcible possession 
and to keei> by force this old Protestant missionary from his work and his people, 
who ha\e oft begged the President to allow their old pastor to leturn, and not to force 
Catholics upon them, and he as strongly desires to return and labor and die with them. 
With the Rev. Mr. Spalding we are intimately acquainted. Here he has been longest 
and best known. He is our neighbor and brother, beloved in the church of Christ; 
and whereof we speak we know. 

Protesiantism in Oregon. 

From the pages of Oregon's history, from the personal knowledge of some of us, 
having been residents of this Pacitic coast for years, and from abundance of the most 
reliable testimony, we, the members of Pleasant Butte Baptist Church, agree upon 
the following expression of opinion : 

It was, under God, Protestantism in Oregon which, after many strong efforts by 
Government, by .Tohn Jacob Astor, and by others, to establish American settlements 
on these Pacitic shores, counted by .Jeti'erson of the greatest national importance, had 
totally failed, did succeed, in the teeth of th? most unrelenting and bloody opposi- 
tion of Romanism and British influence, to establish the first successful and perma- 
nent American settlement on these vast shores, now so important a portion of our 
commonwealth. 

1. By the crossing of the Eocky Mountains in 1834, (four years before any Romish 
priest set foot in Oregon, ) by the Protestant Lee, the pioneer missionary, and his little 
band, to become permanent missionaries and settlers on this coast. And the un- 
daunted patriotism exhibited by this Christian hero in his first interview with the 
governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, then a corrupt British monopoly on this coast. 
The governor said to Mr. Lee : "All needed supplies and facility in our powershall be 
afforded to your mission while you confine yourselves to yourwork as teachers, butthe 
day you lay hands on beaver all supplies will be stopped, and you will be left destitute. 
The trade in furs and the commerce of these seas belong to us." The reply of the mis- 
sionary, American withal, was prompt and characteristic : '' Governor, it is true 1 was 
born a British subject ; but I am now an American citizen, and as such I have and shall 
claim the same right on these shores as the most favored British subject, and that too 
by treaty. I shall therefore trade beaver where and when I please." The same reply, 
almost word for word, was made two yeiirs later to the same English officer, by that 
faithful Christian but stern patriot, Marcus ^^ hitman. That determined the fate of 
both of these valuable men ; they fell martyrs to this their country. The destruction 
of the one was brought about through apostate Americans and disaffected friends 
employed to misrepresent; that of the other by imported Romish agents and Hudson's 
Bay interpreters working upon the savages; Imt not till this great Pacific West was 
securely made a part of our national domain, and their enlightened, stern, American, 
unselfish patriotism claims for their memory the lasting gratitude of the nation rather 
than the malicious calumnies now being heaped upon them through Congress, evi- 
dently for the benefit of Romanism. 

2. By the successful crossing of the continent in 1836, of those two Protestant women, 
Mrs. Spalding and Mrs. Whitman, emphatically the American heroines of the nine- 
teenth century, the first women who, in obedience to the command of their Lord, had 
the Christian courage to turn their backs forever upon weeping friends and the civ- 
ilized world, and to face the hazards of the Rocky Mountains and the vast unknown 
beyond, to be perhaps two years ; to winter in the everlasting snows and dark defiles 
of the mountains; to do without bread, to ask their daily food of God, and receive it 
at the hands of hunters and from buffalo bauds; liable every minute to be pounced 
upon by prowling bands, the party butchered or put afoot to starve ; sick or well, com- 
pelled to travel on, where foot of woman never trod ; the endurance of the horse to 
hold out the two years, and escape foes and starv.ition — their only hope where so 
many strong men had perished — new dangers and accumulating labors multiplying 
every hour upon their fainting bodies. An undertaking prououuccfl impossible for 
woman by every mountain-man, by Geoi-ge Catlin, and the missionary Lee. Mrs. 
Spalding, more dead than alive from starvation and the attendant horril)le sufferings, 
the green buffalo causing fearful diarrhu-a, when the Nez Perces, who had sent to the 
"rising sun " for the Book of God, met them, and gave her dried roots which served as 
bread. Thus did these two Protestant heroines, not for honor or for gold, but to seek 
God's benighted ones, over 3,000 miles from home, and where no succor could reach but 
that invoked from the God they trusted, by their own footsteps and personal hazards 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 75 

settle the great national question that families, and herds, and wagons could scale the 
mountains and the sand deseits, anil thus fairly establish the great emigrant route 
connecting the eastern and western slopes of the North American Continent, so soon 
replaced by the longest railroad and the greatest human work of the age. This emi- 
grant route led to the settling of this great Pacific West by American settlements, and 
these again to the develoi)ment of those vast gold fields so long hid from the eye of 
mortals, and the magic growth of this new half of our commonwealth. This end- 
less amount of gold was mani lestly decreed by the Almighty to be in time for our national 
debt iind in part to speed the gospel wheels of salvation. 

3. By the arrival inthevalleyof the Willamette, iul837, by ajourney of 22,000mile9 
around Cape Horn, of seven Protestant women, to be permanent residents with their 
husbands, and associates of the pioneer Lee, and who laid the foundation of civilized 
and Christian society in Western Oregon, and brought into existence, in 1841, the pro- 
visional government. 

4. By the arrival in the years 1838, 1839, and 1840of nine Protestant missionary ladies 
overland, and of 15 by sea, in all, on the 4th of July, 1841, 33 Protestant wives and 
mothers, with their husbands, six unmarried men and 29 children, 100 in all, (5 had 
died, ) not as yet an emigrant mother in the country, (one had passed through to Califor- 
nia, ) to l)ecome permanent settlers, and to make these distant shores their future home 
for themselves and children, to roll back the thick darkness of unknown ages, to erect 
the standard of the cross, and plant asecond North American Republic on tliese Pacitic 
shores. Precisely the number of that noble band of pilgrims who landed on Plymouth 
rock, 22d of December, 1620. just 220 years before, whose record as the defenders of the 
true faith and the true fathers of this great American Republic is world-wide known 
and justly appreciated. And it is evident from our country's already Pacific posses- 
sions, that the record of the Atlantic mother will not suffer in the comparison with 
the Pacific daughter. Already the Protestant colony of lUO souls has become a half 
empire as in a day. 

At twelve o'clock, on the 4th of July last, thirtj'-three years ago, two Protestant 
heroines, Mrs. Spalding and Mrs Whitman, alighted from their weary horses, them- 
selves in great weakness, atthe dividing point on the Rocky Mountains, in the famous 
South Pass, and after returning profound thanks to Almighty' God for his heavenly care 
of them thus far, and dedicating themselves anew to his holy cause, with the banner 
of the cross in one hand and the stars and stripes in the other, they stepjied down, the 
first American women, intotheTerritory of Oregon, and took formal possession in the 
. name of their Saviour and their country, in the name of American mothers and of the 
American church ; and beingimmediately confronted by the British lion, they instantly 
bearded the royal beast in his lair. Memorable day! It sealed the fate of Great 
Britain on these shores. Then, from the Spanish South to the Frozen North, with the 
exception of a few British trapi)ers and traders, with Indian wives, it was ah unbroken 
wilderness, brooded over by the darkness of ages unknown, without tow nor settlement, 
without school-house or church-yoing bell, except the new-begun mission on the Willa- 
mette of tile pioneer Lee, and his three heroic brothers, ^^ ithout their w ives. Every 
where this vast region was the undisputed home of the wild man and the \\ ild beast, 
regarded even l)y our Government, on account of its rugged and wild nature, fit only 
for the savage, the beaver, and the gi"ay bear. But what, in so short a time, has ap- 
peared ? A half empire-born as in a day ! Three great States, and their Senators in 
Congress. The whole vast region, from the Pacitie waves to the mountain summit, 
mapped into teri'itories, with their governments, and throughout the whole, springing 
into existence as by magic, are crowded cities and lively settlements, interlocked by 
the telegraph, the railroad and steamer, the daily stage and mail. In the thousand 
valleys and every mountain top of this great Pacific slope, the darkness and solitude of 
ages are displaced by the merry school, the hum of business, the temi^le, and the 
morning praises to the living God. Our numerous rivers and our vast Pacific shores, 
so lately the playground only of the sea otter, are white with a fioating commerce, and 
from its numerous harbors vessels and steamers are daily leaving for the markets of 
New York and Liverpool, for China and Japan, laden with the abnudant products of 
our rich valleys and vast prairies, the $60,000,000 of gold and silver a month from our 
snow-capped mountains. 

And 5th. By securing from California in 1837, 600 head of cattle, in spite of the 
powerful opposition of the Hudson's Bay Company, through tbe efforts of the far-seeing 
Protestant, Lee. 'i'hese cattle were divided among the mission, a lew mountain men 
with Indian wives, according to funds invested, and became the foundation of tlie 
comfort and speedy wealth of the country, and effectually delivered the American 
settlement from the Hudson's Bay monopolj'. 

And 6th. By the arrival of the Protestant Whitman at the city of Washington, in 
March, 1843, through untold winter sufi'erings in the mountains of Utah and New 
Mexico, not an hour too soon to prevent the transfer of all Oregon to Great Britain to 
go into the Ashburton and Webster treaty for a codfishery on Newfoundland; by his 
personal representations to President Tyler of this country, of its vast importance, 



76 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 



aud his assurance of a wagou route, as be assured him we had taken cattle, a 
wagon, and his niissionai'y families through six years l)efore, and that he thus ventured 
his life through that wintry journey for the sole object of taking back a caravan of 
wagons through to the Columbia, and thus to settle the question forever that families 
and wagons could cross; this effectually committed the President and stopped the 
negotiations. 

L5y his bringing successfully through to the Columbia, in spite of the combined aud 
powerful indueuce of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Romanism, both at Washiugton 
and at Fort Hall, of that great emigration of 1813, with their two hundred wagons 
and herds, under the momentous conviction that, if he failed, Oregon w^as lost, as the 
Hudson's Bay Company had succeeded only the year before in suddenly planting a 
colony of 140 souls on the I'acitic shores, from thi^ Red River settlements by the Sas- 
katchawan Pass. The ue\\s of their having passed the mountains caused a. young 
priest, not thiulviug that an American was at the large table, to rise, and waving his 
hand, "Hurrah for Columbia! America is too late; w^e have got the country now." 
This astonishing but significant l)oast, coupled with the stopping of wagons at Fort 
Hall every year, aroused the patriot Whitman, who saw at a glance that not an hour 
could be lost, and, unsolicited and unrewarded, and even opposed by the tears of his wife 
and the entreaties of his associates, because of the almost certain death, leaving his 
home on the Walla-Walla in Octolter, 1842, he undertook the herculean lalior of reach- 
ing Washington through the terrific mountain snows of Utah and New Mexico that 
winter, to l)ring through a caravan of wagons. Aud again, on reaching Fort Hall that 
fall, coming up from important medical services in the rear of the long caravan, the 
good doctor found the head companies in great consternation and distress from the 
representations of the Hudson's Bay Company, that no wagons ever had nor ever could 
pass through the terrific Snake deserts and reach the Columbia, aud confronting the 
British lion, as oft he had done, he stepped forward and said, " Mj countrymen, you 
have trusted me thus far ; from this jjoint I know the country ; we took our families, 
cattle, aud wagon through seven years ago, and these men know it. By tbe help of 
that kind Providence who has brought us thus far, we will reach the banks of the 
Columbia before the -!()th of September." And the consequence was, that that large 
emigration passed successfully the Snake country and the Blue Mountains, under the 
guidance of the Protestant missionary and his Prot<'stant Indians, who had come a 
journey of mouths to meet and assist their beloved teacher, and reached the Dalles of 
the Columbia, aud the great enugrant route connecting the Atlantic and Pacihc shores 
was established a sure tl)ing, and becaine at once of the greatest national importance. 

And 8th. By affording at the Protestant stations the yearly way-worn emigrants 
needed sujiplies of provisions in their long aud often disastrous journey to reach this 
\\estern wilderness, and at Dr. Whitman's an asylum for orphans who had lost 
l>arents and all on the route. Eleven adopted orphans were thus upon the hands of 
this philanthropist and his angel wife when they fell, and five of them mingled their 
blood with that of their adopted mother, who with her last breath was heard to pray — 
her lieart's l)lood fast flowing out — '• Oh ! my dear Saviour, take care of my dear chil- 
dren, now to l)e left a second time orphans;" and in a whisper, "tell my mother for 
me that I fell at my post." And also stopping-places for many every year who were 
compelled to stop over winter on account of sickness, given-out teams, or the lateness 
of the season. Some fifty were thus wintering w itli the doctor when the massacre took 
place, and most of the men were butchered with the doctor. Again : in the Willamette 
Valley the Protestant stations were everywhere ready to greet their weary, broken- 
hearted, journey-8trii)ped countrymen with needed supplies, shelter from Oregon 
storms, opportunity to labor, and with schools aud with Christian society. 

And 9. By furnishing the American people and the American Governnientthe ear- 
liest aud constant history of the extent aud charactei' of this great country in their 
numerous yearlj' journals aiul letters, which were published in the ofMcial journals 
of the respective mission boards, aud in the newspapers of the day, aud spread wide 
overt lie laud. 

And 10. By the steadfast devotion of the Protestant Nez Perces, the most ])owerful 
tribe west of the mountains, totheAmericansandthe American Government. Through 
that long and severe struggle to prevent or destroy the Americjin settlements and 
annihilate Protestantism in Oregon ; during the Wbitnian massacre, and the long wars 
that followed, till 1H'>7, the Nez Perces — true to the teachings of their Protestant mis- 
sionaries — remained constantly the firm allies and friends of the Americans, and oppos- 
ing Indian sagacity to Indian sagacity, they were always the best allies of the Amer- 
icans; the quickest to discover the designs of the enemy, and ready to strike at the 
critical moment. When the .Jesuits and p]nglish bad, liy means of Indian ruuners, 
excited the surrounding tribes to butcher the Protestant missionaries aud American 
emigrants at Waiilatpu and to exterminate the American settlements on the Pacific, 
the Nez Perces refused to join them, and first rushed at once to the defense of their 
beloved teacher, Mrs. Sjialding, and rescued her and lier infants from a band of forty 
of the murderers; then, second, fled to the scene of the eight days' carnage, aud by 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 77 

their intlueuee stopped tbe bloody work of the Jesuita; induced the Cayuses to give 
up the fifty Protestant woiueu aud children to Mr. Ogilen; and themselves, third, 
brouglit Mr. .Spalding and family safe through hostile tribes one hundred aud fifty 
miles to \\'ana- Walla, and delivered them to Mr. Ogdeu, and when the Cayuse, urged 
ou by the Jesuit Lewis, after they had obtained the ransom money, made the attempt 
to retake Mr. Spalding aud the Americans, they threw themselves between them aud 
beat them back till Mr. Ogden, by strong current and a most favorable wiud, aud 
the utmost nerve of every oarsman, was out of reach down the Columbia with his three 
boat-loads of humau beings, mostly women aud children, whom this true l'rf)testaut, 
through a kind Providence, had, almost as by miracle— no other nu^u living could have 
saved them — rescued from the bloody tomahawk, or a fate worse than death ; some of 
them iu a dying state —all in a wretched condition ; their husbands aud fathers aud 
brothers horribly butchered before their eyes; their flesh given to the beasts of the 
field; themsel\ es subjected to horrors too shocking for the pen, and robbed of every- 
thing, and left destitute in a land of strangers. But this is Romanism iu Oregon : wid- 
ows left with large families of young children, Dr. and Mrs. Whitman's large family 
of adopted orphans — left doubly orphans — without jiareuts or relatives iu the country. 
Some helpless children aud tbeir dying mothers were actually turned out by these 
Jesuits of one of the very establisliments which the American Captain Mullau demon- 
inates ''the St. Bernards of the West, where the weary traveler is always taken in 
and refreshed by the holy fathers,'' although he must have known its Ijloody record. 

4. Andagain, in 1848, when all the tribes of the Northwest, under Jesuits.had assem- 
bled at iJes Chutes, waiting for ammunition to be brought to them from the English 
post by the priests, with which to cut ort the Willamette settlements and take their 
women audherds, hadtheNez Percesjoined them, as strongly urged, the last Americau 
family would have been butchered, as testifies Governor Abernathy, who ought to 
know; but they refused, and, on the other hand, seut word to the combined camji if 
they attempted to fall upon the Americau settlements they would fall upon their rear, 
sweep their country of their lierds of horses, aud retire east of tbe mountains. This 
unexpected intelligence coming at the moment of the unexpected seizure, by Lieuten- 
ant Rogers, of the anmiunition from the priests, completely checked the savages, and 
saved the settlements, which, at the time, was peculiarly exposed, most of the men 
having rushed to the gol . mines of California, and Rou)anism was again disappointed. 

5. Aud again, iu 1850, after the volnnteers failed to apprehend the guilty Cayuse, 
the Nez Perces, at the request of the Government, rushed through the winter snows, 
overtook the savages on Upper John Day River, overcame the Cayuse iu a Ions' fight, 
killed some, and took five of their principal leaders and delivered them to the Govern- 
ment, and they were tried and executed at Oregon City. 

6. Again, in 18.")5, wheu all the tribes of the >s'orthwest were combined against the 
Americans, except the Nez Perces, as testifies Colonel Cornelius, had they joined the 
combination, (as they were sore pressed to do, thirty-seven oxen being killed at one 
feast to induce them to break their alliance with the Americans and join the combined 
hosts under the priests,) if the American settlements ou this coast had not been bro- 
ken up. they would have been involved iu a most disastrous and expensive war. But 
they steadily maintained their friendship to the Americans, as taught them by their 
missionaries; furnished provisions and cattle to our Army, express, to go where no 
white man could live; remounted our Army atone time with four hundred horses; at 
three different times furnished a battalion of warriors to aid our people when sore 
pressed by the combined hosts, who were coustantly supplied with ammunition. 

7. They flew to the rescue of Governor Stevens and party wheu their retreat was cut 
oft', and when Colouel Steptoe was defeated in a two days' fight, one-fourth of his cpm- 
mand killed or wounded, his retreat and water cutoff and ammunition goue. which dis- 
aster was brought about by a treacherous Jesuit priest, acting the friend iu the American 
camp, but really a spy for the savages, learning the colonel's small amount of ammu- 
nition, seut the savages word, and joined them as soon as thefight commenced with his 
packs of so-called groceries and nails, but really balls aud powder. Then it was Tim- 
othy, the Protestaut, Nez Perces, preacher, and his two brothers, fighting with the 
Americans, discovering an tinguarded opening iu the rocks, taking advantage of the 
darkness and the uproar of the surrounding savages at their dance fires awaiting the 
dawn to scalp the last American, led out the colonel aud his remnant, and, with the 
stillness of death, on through the night, to his country thus saved them and furnished 
them food. Aud during all these years " we had to fight all the tribes which have 
been under Catholic priests," as reports Superintendent Xesiuith, the Nez Perces, so 
thoroughly imbued with the principles of Protestantism and of the Americau Govern- 
ment that uo hostile trilies nor Romish emissaries have been able to draw them from 
their allegiance, have remained a bulwark upon our frontiers, often preveuting our 
settlements from being drenched in the blood of its citizens : and although,by the unwise 
policy of our Government, they have been deprived of the counsels and teachings of 
their old beloved mission for many long years, still they stand firm in their religion, 
and remain the most uncompromising friends of the American people, their constant 



78 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

lidelity aud friendship to the Americans l)eing unanimonsly attributed by Superin- 
tendent Hale and Agents Anderson and Howe, long in charge of tLie tribe, by Gov- 
ernor Abernathy, General Palmer, and scores of miners and ti-avelers, citizens and 
offic«n's, botli civi) aud military, and by about every religious lady in the State, to 
the long-coutinued and most successful laboi's and intlueuce of the Rev. H. H. 
Spalding and his most amiable wife, now in Heaven. 

Done bv order of the Pleasant Bute Baptist Church, Brownsville, Linn County, 
Oregon, October L'2, 1869. 

H. I. C. AVERILL, 
L. C. RICE, 
H. R. POWELL, 
Committee on liesolutionn. 
J. WARMOUTH, 

Moderator. 
J. A. C. AVERILL, 
Clerk. 

Done by order of the Christian Church at Brownsville, Oregon, this October 29, 1869. 

JOHN M. HARRIS, Moderator. 

Attest : 

W. H. ROWLAND, Clerk. 
OBADIAH TUARP, 
D. W. PUTMAN, 
JOSEPH HUNTSAKER, 
W. H. ROWLAND, 

Co7ninittee. 

Adopted unanimously at the annual meeting in Polk County, Oregon, Tuesday 
after third Sabbath in June, 1870, by the committee of the Brotherhood of the 
Christian Church iu Oregon, and voted to be published in the Review at Cincinnati, 
and to be used by our beloved brother Spalding as he may deem proper, with as many 
of our names a^ mav be necessary. 

J. M. HARRIS, Moderator. 

W. H. ROWLAND. Clerk. 

Wil. RUBLE and others, Committee. 



THE OREGON MISSION AND THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. 

The undersigned committee, appointed by the Presbytery of Steuben to prepare and 
publish a report on what is known in history as the Oregon mission of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, would earnestly call the attention of 
all concerned to the following facts and considerations: 

1. Marcus Whitman, M. D., and Rev. H. H. Spalding, and their wives, missionaries 
of the A. B. C. F. M., were tlie lirst to pi'ove that families could cross the American 
continent, by safely accomplishing that journey in 1836. 

2. A successful mission was established by these pioneers among the Cayuse and 
Nez Perces Indians, in what was then known as the Oregon Territory. This was 
done byspecial permit of the United States Government. Themission was maintained 
eleven years, to the great beuelit, as can be abundantly shown, of the Indians, espe- 
cially of the large and powerful tribe of Nez Perces. 

3. It is well known that then the whole of that northwest territory, though osten- 
sibly in the joint occupancy of the United States and Great Britain, was really under 
the control of the Hudson's Bay Company. The agents of that British monopoly had 
driven away the last American trader from those shores, and were doing all in their 
power to exclude American settlers. Their efforts were so far successful, that, in the 
autumn of 184'2, a treaty was about to be closed between tiie United States and Great 
Britain, transferring to the latter that whole territory. 

4. It was at this important juncture that Dr. Whitman determined, notwithstand- 
ing tlie approach of winter, to cross the continent, and, if possible, save thiit country 
to the United States. A more hazardous undertaking, more heroically accomplished, 
the annals of adventure nowhere describe. That terrible winter journey, and its con- 
sequences, constitute a notable and thrilling chapter of our national history. Dr. 
Whitman reached Washington in the spring of 1843, barely in time to secuie, by his 
representations of the country and the overland route, a postponement of the disas- 
trous treaty until he should conduct an emigrant train to the Columbia River. 

This task he accomplished during the following summer, bringing ;< trainof one thou- 
sand souls safely through, thus completely demonstrating the ieasibility of the overland 
route, and effectually securing that vast and valuable territory to the United States. 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 79 

And from that time tLe luissiou station of Dr. Whitman at Waiilatpu was a well-known 
haven of rest and supplies to the emigrants passing tliroiigh yearly to the Pacific coast. 

5. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Britisli officials in that region were greatly 
incensed against Dr. Whitman and his associates. It is now a matter of authentic 
history that extreme measures were soon resorted to by the agents of the Hudson's 
Ba^ Company to check the growth of American influence. Special agents from Europe 
appeared on the ground, antl, by the aid of certain Roman Catholic ])rie8ts, the Indians 
themselves were incited to violence by false reports concerning the missionaries, as, 
e. (?., that they had come to poison the Indians and possess their lands. The result of 
such intrigues was what might be expected. On the 29th of November, 1847, began 
the horrid Whitman massacre, in which Dr. W^hitman and nineteen others were slain. 
Throughout those eight days of slaughter, Americans o)ili/ were the victims. The 
priests and others who were there in the interests of the Hudson's liay Company were 
unharmed, and there is every reason to believe that they only encouraged and assisted 
the savages in their bloody work. It was a white man that gave the signal ibr the 
slaughter to commence, and with his own hands he shot Mrs. Whitman. And the few 
who escaped were refused admittance at the forts of the comjjany. 

6. It is well known that the Whitman uiassacre was the beginning of an attempt to 
break up all American settlements in the Territory, and that the missionaries at th^ 
Lapwai station only escaped butchery through the friendly protection of the Nez 
Perces. There is also abundance of the best possible testimony from such men as Com- 
modore Wilkes, United States Navy ; Governor Abernathy, and General Joel Palmer; 
from many prominent United States officers, from missionaries, travelers, and citizens 
of the Territory, proving the fidelity to that mission of Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, and 
the great value to the United States Government of their labors among the Nez Perces. 
During the long and expensive war following the massacre, this tribe alone, among the 
Indians, was friendly to the Americans. And there is no doubt, as many have testified, 
that this was owing in a great measure to the teachings of Mr. Spalding; and, accord- 
ing to Mr. Anderson, several years agent of the Nez Perces, "Mr. Spalding by his own 
per.sonal labors has accomplished more good to this tribe than all the money expended 
by the Government has been able to effect." 

Having thus briefly alluded to the vast services rendered, and the almost unparal- 
leled sufferings endured by the founders of the Oregon mission for their country, we 
pause to ask what has their country done for them. What has the General Govern- 
ment done in recognition of these services? How has the nation exjiressed its grati- 
tude to the memory of those patriots, to whom we owe, under God, a large portion, if 
not all our possessions on the Pacific coast f 

In thefirstplace, a document bearing on this subject has been published by Congress, 
entitled " Executive Document No. 38, Thirty-fifth Congress, First Session," and con- 
taining ostensibly the report of .J. Ross Browne as special agent of the Government to 
inquire into the causes of the Indian war in Oregon. But, on examination, we find this 
report, containing only twelve pages written by said Browne, and fifty-three other 
pages, made up ot a pamphlet first published years before in New York City, by a Jesuit 
priest, Brouilette. But this pamphlet, it is plain, was prepared soon after the Whit- 
man massacre, and is an attempt to screen the author and others from the charges 
brought against them of complicity in that tragedy. And there is overwhelming evi- 
dence of the best possible kind, that this portion of said con-^ressional document con- 
tains many absolute falsehoods, and casts most infamous reflections upon Dr. Whitman 
and his associates. This Brouilette, it is proved, in part by his own testimony, was 
present at the massacre, doing nothing to save the victims, but baptizing the children 
of the murdering Indians, and otherwise stimulating them in their work of death. 
That such a man should have written such a pamphlet is not surprising. But why, 
we ask in the name of humanity and justice, why must Congress give currency to such 
slanders against the very men who achieved and suffered so much for their country? 
Why must the General Government give to so infamous and malignant an attack all 
the dignity and authority of an official document, and that, too, without publishing a 
scrap of the abundant rebutting testimony. . 

But this is not all. In another official document we find the Thirty-seventh Congress 
declaring that the Lapwai mission was "voluntarily abandoned " "by the missionaries 
in December, 1847, which, as the world knows, is false and absurd. First driven away 
by the murdering savages of the Whitman massacre, the missionaries were afterward 
taken out of the country, and the country was closed against all missionaries by the 
Government until 1858. 

And finally : "It is well known and proved that so soon as it was thought safe Mr. 
Spalding attempted to return, but was forbidden ; and when he did and opened his 
schools among his old people, who were rejoiced to see him, and at once filled up 
church and school-room— as testified by Agent Anderson, these schools were broken 
up and himself forced from his old home, his orchards and buildings, his people and 
native (Indian) church,"' by the United States Government; nor has he since been 
permitted to return. 

S. Ex. Doc. 37 6 



80 EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 

Sncli, iu its main features, lias been and still is the attitude of the fieneral Govern- 
uii'ut toward the sui'vivors of the Oi'egon mission! Such is almost the only recogni- 
tion yet made by this nation of the invaluable services rendered by those martyred 
l^atriots and their associates! 

We, therefore, in behalf of the Presbytery of Steuben, from whose bounds Dr. Mar- 
cus Whitman and Kev. H. H. Spalding went forth upon their mission in 1836; ahd 
firmly l)elieving that the above statements are true, having ourselves examined much 
of the testimony referred to, do most earnestly unite with our fellow-eitizens of the 
Pacific coast and the various I'rotestant churches there, in respectfully entreating 
Congress, as far as possible, to rectify the wrong done to the memory of the dead and 
the reputation of the living in the publication of the aforesaid Executive Document 
No. 38, Thirty-fifth Congress. To this end, wo pray that a candid and well-attested 
account of the whole matter, about to be presented to Congress, may be published 
in a like official document. 

We also, as a presbytery, would express our entire confidence in the high Christian 
character of these missionaries, who were well known to some of us personally. We 
especiallv hereby tender our warmest sympathies to our afflicted and faithful brother, 
Rev. H. H. Spalding. 

We earnestly entreat of the Government at Washington that he may be restored 
to his beloved missionary work, and to the native church and schools which he was 
so successful in establishing. 

And now, since the last Protestant missionary to the Indians beyond the Rocky 
Mountains has recently been driven from his field by the General Government, as is 
well known, and that, too, at the very time when the Government claims to be intro- 
ducing a more humane and righteous Indian policy than has heretofore prevailed, 
we feel that, in common with all American Christians and all friends of humanity, 
"we have the right to earnestly ask of our Government that this long series of griev- 
ous wrongs may cease, and these evils, so far as possible, be rectified. 

P>y order of the Presbytery of Steuben : 

D. HENRY PALMER, 
JAMES H. HOTCHKIS, 
O. F. MARSHALL, 

Committee. 

" Let not the country cast dishonor on unselfish patriotism. 

'' Let not the brand of infamy remain on the memory of the just. 

"The publication of the allegations above mentioned by authority of Congress, 
doubtless through one of those inadvertencies which creep into the proceedings of 
deliberative bodies, calls for ample redress. 

"We therefore unite with all patriotic and fair-dealing men in the earnest petition 
that the Congress of the United States should do justice to the memory of the dead 
and protect the rights of the living." 

Adopted bv the Oregon Presbytery, Old School Presbyterian Church. 

A. L. LINDSLEY, D. D., Moderator. 

Adopted also by the Oregon Presbytery, Cumberland Presbvterian Church. 

W. R. BISHOP, Moderator. 

Adoi)ted also bv the Oregon Presbytery, United Presbyterian Church. 

■ I. DICK, Moderator. 

Adopted also by the Oregon Conference Methodist Episcopal Church. 

BISHOP KINGSLEY, Moderator. 

Adopted also by the Oregon Congregational Association. 

G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Moderator. 

Adopted also by the Pleasant Bute Baptist Chnrch. 

.1. WARMOUTH, Moderator. 

Adopted also at the annual meeting of the Oregon Christian Church. 

JOHN HARRIS, Moderator. 

And these !)odies probably represent full 30,000 of the best inhabitants of the State. 
These sentiments are also concurred in by all the leading journals on this side of the 
mountains. 

We have thus allowed the leading citizens of the State of Oregon and the Territory 
of W' ashington, and nearly all the Federal officers of the country, to speak for them- 
selves on this all-important subject which the Congress of the United States, by their 
own vote, and in their own official documents, have placed iu the hands of the ]>eople. 



EARLY LABORS OF MISSIONARIES IN OREGON. 81 

And now, with the utmost confidence, we commend these witnesses to that ever- 
watchful care over the truth of history, and to that sacred regard for unselfish patriot- 
ism which animates the bosom of every American 

Assisted by- ' «• «• SPALDING. 

Rev. W. H. ROWLAND. 
Hon. R. H. CRAWFORD. 
Hon. R. B. COCHRAN. 
Hon. T. R. CORNELIUS. 
Rev. J. S. GRIFFIN. 
DUDLEY ALLEN, M. D. 
JAMES H. HOTCHKIN, Esq. 
E. R. GEARY, D. D. 
Hon. I. R. MOORES. 
Rev. J. M. HARRIS. 
Rev. G. S. KENDALL. 
J. C. H. AVERILL. 
GUSTAVUS HINES, D. D. 
JAMES BLACKESLY. 
Rev. W. R. BISHOP. 
G. H. ATKINSON, D. D. 
Rev. LUTHER WHITE. 
JOHN WILSON. 

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